Jake - 'Hi to everyone on the internet!' The Empire Awards and Naomi's speech

It's been a while since we've watched a video of Jake talking about his films and I was definitely ready to see this, not least because it begins with Jake giving us all a wave and saying 'Hi to everyone on the internet!' For those of you who love to hear Jake speak in foreign tongues, he also says a few French words. For this is a French video, le Fin de l'Inocence, and its subject is Jarhead.



As always, Jake is fascinating to listen to, especially, for me, in these two sections: 'If you has asked me before I made this film, I probably would have said that I'm a pacifist, I guess. But after I think I recognised a lot of aggresion in myself that I didn't know. And the thrill of holding a weapon in my hands and just sort of thinking of killing or being killed, just all those ideas that run through your mind when you're playing a part like this. After that I think I walked the line - I walked the line! But, ultimately, I don't think that war is really the appropriate answer for anything.'


'I hope it's never the end of innocence, you know. I mean, I think that's the thing that keeps me wanting to do like... to keep acting. But I do think that I grew up a lot while I was making the movie and I think that Sam's process - Sam Mendes' process in directing, you know, I think he empowers you and he makes you feel that nothing you can do is wrong. And I think when somebody says that to you, when they say nothing you can do is wrong, you can take risks, you can make choices. That really forces you to grow up. I don't think that it ends your innocence but that definitely forces you to progress and change.'


After watching the UK MTV Making of Zodiac special and listening to the Zodiac commentary with Jake and Robert Downey Jr - not to mention the Making of documentary that is included in the Director's Cut of Zodiac - it makes one realise how very different Jake's experience was making these two contrasting movies. One was perhaps more difficult than the other, with the physical determination and agression necessary for Jarhead perhaps easier to endure than the mental straitjacket demanded by the procedural and verbal Zodiac. And yet Jake responded to both, giving us and his directors two great performances.


The Sony Ericsson Empire Awards - Zodiac's nominations

The Oscars, and the BAFTAs for that matter, may have decided not to acknowledge Zodiac in any shape or form, but Empire magazine (arguably Britain's premier film publication) announced the shortlist for the Sony Ericsson Empire Awards today. This shortlist, which is voted upon by readers of the magazine and its website, moviegoers one and all, lists Zodiac three times.


Zodiac is nominated for Best Thriller and Best Film and David Fincher is nominated for Best Director. Unfortunately no mention is made of Jake Gyllenhaal, or the rest of Zodiac's cast, nor of Rendition. The awards are presented at a ceremony in London on 9 March. You can read the full shortlist here. Good luck Zodiac and David Fincher.


A short while ago, I posted a link to a MTV half-hour special on Zodiac (mentioned above), which was only avaible to watch in the UK. Stephanie at I Heart Jake has now kindly and expertly merged these video files into one and uploaded them so that everyone can enjoy them. You can find it here. Thanks to Twisted Logic for putting the video up on YouTube.


Naomi's speech on the relationship between author and reader

Last Saturday, the Scripter Award was presented at a gala dinner held, rather appropriately and yet incongruously, in a library - the Doheny Memorial Library in Los Angeles. This award 'celebrates the art of adaptation, acknowledging both the authors of the original novel or novella and the screenwriters.' This year's event was linked to the Gyllenhaals doublefold - James Vanderbilt's adaptation of Robert Graysmith's Zodiac was a contender and the head of the selection committee is Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. Unfortunately, Vanderbilt didn't win, with the award going to No Country for Old Men, which was adapted by Joel and Ethan Coen.


Here is an account of the event, which 'managed to tie the different atmospheres together into a celebratory environment, yet one that was intellectually sober, where one was constantly reminded of the frequent inseparability of the triumphs and challenges of writing and adapting for the screen. In her introduction of the honorees, the head of the selection committee Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, mother of actors Maggie and Jake Gyllenhaal, spoke of the delicate art of "keeping the spirit of the story line intact, while turning it into something entirely different."'


'"Getting inside the intimate relationship an author makes with his reader to create a concrete picture of character and place without disturbing the author's original underlying intent [is difficult to do]," Gyllenhaal said at the event. "No wonder it so often fails. But sometimes it rises to the heights of perfection and provides insight and possibility that the reader alone would never come to."'

Includes pictures from IHJ.

Brothers appears on the horizon for December 2008

Well, we said it couldn't be true - and we were right! What am I talking about? IMDb has shifted the release date of Brothers forward a year to 4 December 2008, which means we will (at least in the US) see Jake Gyllenhaal on the big screen in 2008 after all and, not only that, it opens up all sorts of opportunities for publicity and screenings during the film festival season this Autumn. I'm not surprised by the change in date at IMDb - after all, this is a film presumably without spaceships, vast crowd scenes, superheroes, or many other CGI delights - but it is good to see the shift from 2009 to 2008. It also gives me an opportunity to repost these tantalising tasters of Brother Jake.




Zodiac screening and Q&A with James Vanderbilt

The other good news - again if you're in the US and specifically in Jake's neck of the woods (Beverly Hills) - Paramount Studios continue to try to make amends for their earlier Zodiac disdain. This time the studio is hosting a free screening of Zodiac at the Writers Guild Theater (135 South Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills) on 19 January at 7.30pm. The screening is followed by a Q&A with the film's writer and DVD commentator James Vanderbilt. I really enjoy James' voice and accent on the commentary. More details here.


Talking of James Vanderbilt, here is an interview that James did with the WGA in which he talks about Zodiac. I love James' concept of what being a writer is all about: 'I honestly think part of being a writer is that you deal in dark shit so you don't bring it out in your real life. I'm a pretty happy-go-lucky guy because I can deal with dark shit and get it out on the page and not have it follow me home.'


Farragut... again

Meanwhile, on the Jake front, another site made mention of the infamous Farragut North production. I think we may spend much of this year wondering whether Jake is to take to the Broadway stage during 2008's electoral fall or not. Clearly, it's an idea that does arouse interest and I don't think we should rule it out at this stage. Politico has this to say:


'Just read the screenplay for “Farragut North,” a project ostensibly based on the 2004 Howard Dean campaign that has George Clooney attached as a director and possible actor along with Leonardo DiCaprio. There’s no “Yee-hah!!” Dean scream and, in fact, the candidate himself (named Gov. Jim Morris here) barely appears in the story line, which concerns dirty backroom tricks, robocalls, direct mailings, ad buys, get-out-the-vote drives and snagging the support of black leaders before the Iowa caucus — all too familiar for anyone following the 2008 race. The film probably won’t start shooting until later this year and may even hit Broadway first, with Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead role. Joe Trippi, are you ready for your close-up?'


And finally...

Ang Lee continues his publicity rounds for Lust, Caution, a film that is still blazing a trail, albeit in all too few theatres. Here, Ang reflects on the extra lives that each of his films has given him or unleashed from within him. It's good to hear Ang talk about the experience of filming Brokeback Mountain.


The paper says: 'After diving deep into heavy territory with Crouching Tiger and the much-derided Hulk with Eric Bana, Lee used Brokeback to "recover from the past two movies". "It was very relaxed," he says. "Perhaps that's the best state of making a movie. That movie was very simple, honest, and I did my best effort as usual, but I was very relaxed... Lust, Caution, I went deep again... I don't know if I should still keep pushing the envelope or do something like Brokeback, you know, take it like a breeze. Sometimes I think the material demands me -- we're the slaves to filmmaking, not the masters. Brokeback had so much love in it, it just required me to be in such a state, so maybe that's why I did that at that time."'


Includes pictures from IHJ.

WGA nominates Zodiac - and Jake on 'fulfilling a childhood fantasy'

Big congratulations to James Vanderbilt, author of the script for Zodiac. For this masterpiece, James has been nominated by the Writer's Guild of America. Of course, the Writer's Guild is also on strike and so it has cancelled the WGA event. The winners will be announced on 9 February and no ceremony will be held until after the end of the strike. I hope against hope that this may hint at an Oscar nomination or two. We'll know soon enough - the ballots are due in tomorrow (Saturday) at 5pm.


'It was just fun for me'

We've had some storms in the British Isles over the last couple of days, lashing rain and howling gales, which, as it ever does, puts me in the mood for The Day After Tomorrow. Now, I know this is the equivalent to some of you of what Proof is to me - ie, one of Jake's few bad choices - but try and put up with me because there's a corking video coming up. This was recorded I believe when Jake was in the UK for the premiere of the film and got artificially snowed on in Leicester Square, in the West End. Because the snow was fake, Jake didn't need Tom Hank's Aston Villa football scarf that Tom proudly wore to his own premiere in London the other night...


In this video, a very good-humoured Jake chats to an appreciative Brit about what he enjoyed about doing such a big popcorn movie. Jake likens the scene where he is chased by wolves on a Russian ship in the middle of NYC to scenes in some of his previous independent movies, 'I tend to play troubled kids', and jokes that if there had been no wolves in that scene it would have been entirely fitting for that other movie where he spent time chatting to a six foot rabbit.



Jake is also asked what his favourite scene is in the move: 'Probably almost every scene that I'm not in.' But Jake settles in the end, despite his enjoyment at seeing his own home town destroyed by tornadoes, on the aeroplane scene. Speaking for myself, that is one of the very few scenes in any of Jake's films where I look at Jake through fingers laced across my eyes - not a good flyer and I dislike peanuts.


At the same site, you can also watch a small feature on The Day After Tomorrow, which includes interviews on set with Jake and Dennis Quaid. With both videos you have to choose your desired internet speed (I recommend the middle setting).


When Jake was back in Canada, in Calgary, preparing to begin work on Brokeback Mountain and all that that involved, he had to fly off to LA and NYC to continue the publicity for this very different film. In LA, Jake revealed he'd watched one of my all time favourite movies (it has both Steve McQueen and Paul Newman in it, after all): 'I remember watching The Towering Inferno on DVD, but most of the disaster movies I grew up on were bad examples of the genre... Even if they weren't particularly good, I loved watching the big summer action movies. I'd be lying if I said I wanted to do The Day After Tomorrow for any other reason than fulfilling a childhood fantasy.'


Jake also looks back on the funny times filming the stunts, or trying to film the stunts, and how close he was to taking the role of Spider-Man: 'They definitely talked to me about Spider-Man... I would have done it if they had needed me but Tobey was able to do it after all.'


Some time ago I was wondering in the comments here what had happened to the boy, Arjay Smith, who played Jake's best friend in the film. I did find an interview with Arjay in which he talks about the experience of appearing in the blockbuster. He also reveals that one day one of the actors' trailers blew up! Otherwise, by the sound of it, everyone had a good time on the set and enjoyed the opportunities to run around: 'We’re running through this fake snow. I can’t remember what type of material they were using, but we’re just really running through the snow. Jake had to do a couple of stunts. They had to put him on a wire because he’s walking across a boat – a ship, actually – and so he was about 20’ high. He had to just get wired up, just for safety reasons. Not too much in the way of stunts, and we had our doubles just in case anything got a little hectic where they wanted us to run through very narrow spots. But we were running through the rain. I said I wanted to do a lot of it myself, running through the rain. It was just fun for me.'


Elsewhere, Dennis Quaid was asked what it was like to film with the young Jake: 'Jake is great. He's very smart, very funny and he's a really good actor. I think he's got a really great career ahead of him.'


And it turns out I'm not the only big Wet Sam fan about, Chloe Sevigny had this to say about Jake when she was interviewed about her role as Melanie in Zodiac: 'He’s a great actor. I mean, even in that end of the world movie that he did [The Day After Tomorrow], his performance in that was so subtle and made the movie so fun to watch, because you just wanted to watch this kid; you couldn’t take your eyes off of him. And he’s great. He’s had all these great roles, one after the other. And he’s a nice guy. He’s very boyish and he’s very charming.'


I was interested to discover that, back in June last year, Hillary Clinton hosted a charity LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) fundraiser event at the glamorous Hollywood home of Roland Emmerich, the director of, and force behind, The Day After Tomorrow. Roland wasn't able to attend himself. Just look at that home...


Includes pictures from IHJ.