Jake Gyllenhaal to feature in a Jamie Foxx documentary and Love and Other Drugs gets closer to its Japanese release

Jamie Foxx is making a documentary about, one speculates, his career. So far untitled, it's scheduled for release in 2012 and there, topping the list of contributors is Jake Gyllenhaal. Of course, Jake and Jamie have known each other for some time, most famously making Jarhead together back in 2005. Jake also featured in a cameo for Jamie's single Blame It back in February 2009.

The contributors for the documentary include the other Blame It cameo stars, not all of whom had any idea what they were committing too when they turned up for filming shortly after the inauguration of President Obama. Apparently, Foxx had used that occasion to hoodwink Ron Howard (read more about that here)! It will definitely make for some interesting stories.

According to IMDb Pro, the documentary was filmed in LA and New Orleans in December 2009.



Love and Other Drugs

Source Code has not yet opened in Japan, but neither has Love and Other Drugs. It doesn't open until 19 November and the publicity is underway. With thanks to Maumintolor, here is a look at Japan's poster as well as a link to the website.

TIFF 2011

Amid rumours that Jake has joined Maggie in Toronto to support her at TIFF for the opening of Hysteria, Anna Kendrick is also in attendance. PoPSugar reports that she gushed to them about her latest handsome co-star, Jake. Good on you, Anne! If there's one thing I can empathise with, it's someone gushing about Jake.

Jake Gyllenhaal: Movie, video, cameo star (and the PoP fish and chip shop accent)

We've heard a lot about Jake Gyllenhaal's Prince of Persia accent - Mike Newell and Sir Ben Kingsley have had a little disagreement over exactly which postal code in London it hails from, while Gemma Arterton confidently places it as Estuary. Jake, on the other hand, has admitted that it did have a tendency to wander due to the indluence of the multi-Brit crew, until Mike Newell would pull him south again. However, in this video from Lovefilm, Jake is informed that he sounds just like the bloke at the interviewer's local fish and chip shop.


I wonder if Jake's as handy with the deep fat frier.

Appropriately enough as we enter semi-final stages at Wimbledon, we've been hearing a little more about the filming up Vampire Weekend's Giving Up the Gun video. Apparently, its influence, as far as sticking it together went, was Jamie Foxx's Blame it. That's an interesting comparison because Ron Howard has said that he was in the Blame It video without actually knowing why he was in the video; it was something he'd sort of agreed to during the euphoria of the Obama inaguration ceremony.



Back to Vampire Weekend and the interview with the video's director Emmett Malloy: 'Jake Gyllenhaal literally had bought the record the day before. I knew him through a friend of a friend. He was driving down from San Francisco, and he literally just pulled over and did it. It was a combination of second-hand connections and timing. Joe Jonas was just a fan of the band, and my brother has done a few of the Jonas Brothers' videos... It's like that Jamie Foxx video where Ron Howard's in it. There's no rhyme or reason. But they all seem to work. They all came, and we found something for them to grab a hold of.'



'Pitchfork: Were all of these people hanging out with each other on set? EM: [laughs] No, man. That's the bullshit thing about cameos, I swear to God. Every time, I'd be like, "OK, we're going to shoot the fire effect," and then they'd be like, "Jake Gyllenhaal just showed up." I'd be like, "OK, we're not shooting the fire effect right now; we're shooting Jake Gyllenhaal."'

Jake 'literally just pulled over and did it'? Makes it sound like they filmed it in a layby.



And finally...

It seems that Russian audiences have been left nonplussed by Toy Story 3, preferring instead Disney's offering Prince of Persia. Read more here.



Pictures from IHJ.

[Updated] Why Jake Gyllenhaal chose Dastan over Avatar's Sully and the dangers and gifts of making movies

Many congratulations to Gemma Arterton on her marriage, which took place in Spain on Saturday! Report here.

While I'm loath to interrupt all those in the UK watching the Brothers DVDs that they bought today, I thought I'd better do a new post, if only to let this image from yesterday float around our imaginations for a while... 'farmer's market catch of the day/month/year: jake gyllenhaal, buff and scruffy, holding motorcycle helmet, intensely swoon-worthy.' Following hot on the heels of the People sighting of Jake arriving for brekkie on a motorbike, there now seems more support for the idea that Jake Gyllenhaal has learned what so many of us bikers have learned - it's a lot easier to get up those hills when you don't have to pedal. Someone should tell Lance...


But talking of Brothers, which, of course, many of you will be buying this week, thanks to MMK for this wonderful, and slightly distracting, Brothers montage.


Until we have the pleasure of seeing Jake on his bike (and finding out what breed it is), I'll make do with posting more about Prince of Persia, which has now taken an extraordinary $216m wordwide. In this video interview with Sky News, Jake and Gemma talk about what it was like throwing off the roles after living in them for so many months: 'We did shoot this movie for six, seven months so by the end of it you'd been playing one character for so long it was sort of a relief to shed all those things, cut your hair, go for a run without lifting any weights. I like changing from one role to the next. In fact I went onto the next movie and played a Viagra salesman. It was quite different!'


Jake Gyllenhaal did a bunch of excellent interviews for Prince of Persia and I'm going to be mulling them over for some time as I digest the heady PoP month of May 2010. This French interview - with the Cool Prince of Hollywood - is one of the best. You can see the scans over at IHJ.


Jake talks about turning down the role of Sully in Avatar in favour of Dastan: "When James and I discussed the project, I wasn't ready. In this business, if you don't listen to yourself, you're going to meet serious trouble. What made the Prince of Persia different is the humor. Dastan, my character is a hero who doesn't take himself seriously; he's funny and that's what I like about him. I had fun during this shoot, even if I spent over an hour and a half every morning putting my costume on, with thirty minutes just to tie my boots"

Comme Au Cinema

"I learned to keep my distance from all this [paparazzi attention], I know how to protect myself. The problem in my profession isn't the tabloid press. Moviemaking is a dangerous for your mental health if you're not honest with yourself. If you play a game, then sooner or later, you'll lose yourself. The hardest part for me is to be fair. I want to choose good stories, the roles that I really wanted, and, above all, give meaning to my life and make it meaningful to others.When one of my movies affects people, it's little, but that's something." It's an awful lot more than something, Jake.


On working with the delinquent youths for Brothers: "I remember a meeting with young people aged between 14 and 16 years. One of them read a poem aloud. He was so charismatic, so talented ... This experience touched me deeply. I know all the boys that I work with; I know what they did to get there and I understand their anger and sadness. These are feelings that I experienced at their age. I empathise with them because, ultimately, only a few kilometers separate the rich neighborhoods of Los Angeles and downtown, where they lived."


"During the filming of Jarhead Jamie Foxx tried to teach me chess. He taught me two key strokes, which, if I use them intelligently, lets me win the game. In the kitchen, it's much the same thing. I master a few techniques, but what counts is that I know what to do. I love going to the market, to see and touch the products; it gives me ideas. Being a good cook means to invent, be intuitive and not follow recipes to the letter."


Updated to add new pictures of Jake leaving the gym in Studio City today (7 June). These pictures show that Jake is definitely making up for all the gym hours I've lost over the last month. Many thanks to IHJ for the pics!




Pictures with thanks from MMK, links and IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal: 'He's exceptional - as good a cook as he is an actor'. Hot prince too...

The Prince of Persia has (almost) robbed me of the power of speech... Moody, grubby and deep, just how I like him. The more I see of Jake Gyllenhaal as Dastan, the more I look forward to seeing not only the movie - and I'm looking forward to seeing that rather a lot - but also the publicity images that we will see more of over the next few months, as Disney introduces us to their prince. Many thanks to IHJ for this stunning image.


Go to the official PoP website for more delights.


Maggie Gyllenhaal has been talking to the press this weekend as the Oscar publicity machine goes into full gallop. Maggie reminisced to the Guardian about her earliest memory: 'I was tiny, less than three, looking up at my mom, who was pregnant. We were saying, "When is this baby going to come?" about my brother, Jake.' Good to know it was about Jake, even as a bump he was worth talking about.


There is more in the Telegraph: '“My brother and I used to be competitive when we were younger,” muses the 32-year-old. “But now I feel we’re different enough, old enough and love each other enough that competition feels like a waste of time.” So it’s all happy families these days, except when it comes to cooking... “He’s exceptional – as good a cook as he is an actor,” she admits. “He was just here for the holidays and he cooked a lot. I have basic skills – I know how to steam vegetables and make pasta and salads – but I’m not so good at the harder stuff. I’d like to learn how to easily cook up something really great.”


'I suggest that the test of a person’s skill in the kitchen is whether they can whip up “something great” without following a recipe. “Actually, it’s very telling about me,” she admits, warming to her subject. “For me, the challenge is following the recipe, because it’s so difficult for me to be a beginner at something. I don’t like things when I’m not good at them.But I’m learning how nice it is to be a beginner. It used to be that if I wasn’t good at something, I wouldn’t even want to try it, but now I’m learning how nice it is to try.”'

Arguably, it's even better to let Jake cook for you... especially cakes...


And finally...

Thanks to Uli, for coming across the IMDb link to the 'Unnamed Jame Foxx Documentary' which, it says, is currently filming and will include Jake Gyllenhaal, along with Jake's Blame It co-stars. Something to keep an eye on...


As to Jake today, quite a few tweets and Facebook sightings have Jake in Austin, Texas. In Whole Foods (no surprise there), at parties and in parks.

Includes pictures from IHJ.

Jake Gyllenhaal at Jamie Foxx's pre-Grammy bash

You may recall from my earlier post today, that I've been comparing Jake Gyllenhaal to London Buses. Well, the coincidence is getting spooky. For the third time in one day, Jake has popped up again, this time having fun with good mate Jamie Foxx. I think they've just spotted Ron Howard.


This Sunday, the Grammy Awards take place at the Staples Center in LA, and Jamie Foxx is up for three of them, including best R&B performance and best R&B song for Blame It. To celebrate, Jamie held a party at l'Ermitage Hotel in LA on Friday night and Blame It video star Jake Gyllenhaal came along. Apparently, the party had to move from the hotel rooftop because, strangely, it went past 11pm and people were still having fun.



Many thanks to IHJ for keeping track of Jake today!

Behind the scenes and film of the day

If you've not been following the voyages of the Enterprise or have avoided raucous goings on in the Smithsonian, you may have noticed that Tom Hanks is back in the theatres sorting out the mysteries of the universe in scenic places. The success of Angels and Demons for director Ron 'I Love Richie' Howard will no doubt be huge, giving him an escape from his part time job of appearing in music videos.



Ron appeared on The View last week alongside Tom Hanks and others who were entertained by Ron's cameo in Blame It and he was asked to explain how it happened. Jamie Foxx asked Ron at the Obama Inauguration and, caught up with the love and good feeling of this historic event, Ron assumed he was being asked to appear in a We Are The World type video. Instead, he got red lights, booze and dancing girls. The upside is that he did get to sit in a car with Jake Gyllenhaal and he too may have been allowed to keep a hat. You can see a video of this interview with Ron here.



The video below gives us a little taster of the jollity that went on behind the scenes during the video shoot when all concerned were encouraged to show their 'party face'. Fortunately, we get a glimpse of Jake's.



The song is released in the UK at the end of June so we may get to see Jake on our TV screens this summer after all.

Film of the Day - Donnie Darko

Donnie Darko gets a showing on Britain's BBC2 tonight as the Film of the Day, hopefully allowing new audiences a taste of a film that for them too could become a discussion point for years. In 2001, a snippet about rising star Jake appeared in Interview magazine: 'A self-professed "odd, wacky, weird kid" growing up, Gyllenhaal, 20, is playing the same kinds of characters. And that's fine by him: "There should be more movies that say, 'So you're going through some abnormal shit? Hey, it's just a part of growing up. Feeling like an oddball is OK.'"' IT's difficult to think of any film in which this is better expressed than Donnie Darko, or any other actor who could possibly have embodied it more convincingly and soulfully. So, if you're able, 10.30pm, tonight, BBC2.

Jarhead - doing a Swoff

It's been a while... time for some Gratuitous Swoff. I wouldn't like to say that this is a response to Jake Gyllenhaal making a public appearance on Thursday in a shirt that had far too many buttons for our own good, but that is a possibility.


I was also encouraged by a video that shows that Jarhead was not simply a waiting game for the soldiers in the desert, the whole shoot had a bit of an expectant and disappointing air to it if you were two of the extras in the squad. Or, as they put it, the two left over hot dog rolls, when all attention is on the lead: 'Jake Gyllenhaal is so cute'.



This video is well worth enjoying for a lot of reasons, but also because it shows how to act 'So Swoff' and because it contains a fine impression of Peter Sarsgaard and a not very fine impression of the Number 1 - Jamie Foxx. Let us hope that neither No. 12 nor No. 13 were the ones Peter and Jake discussed here: 'Peter: We definitely got attached to our weapons, especially after one us – neither Jake nor I, but another guy on the movie – managed to completely trash his M-16 during boot camp. Jake: We still hate him; it really upset us and I never thought I would be upset at someone for trashing a gun of any kind but I really was.'


And while I'm throwing around videos to do with Jarhead, here's a deleted scene from the movie that shows Jake playing with matches - please don't do this at home.



When one thinks of Jarhead, one remembers stunningly realised oil raining from red skies, or the frustration of soldiers fearing untrustworthy girls back home and an enemy they may never reach. A Gyllenhaalic, however, has other reasons to remember Jarhead. When the real Swofford wasn't making Jake read Hamlet, The Myth of Sisyphus (my own personal favourite) and The Portable Nietzsche, he also joked 'Well, I taught him those dance moves'. Fortunately, Swoff wasn't just a soldier who 'wanted to sit alone in the back of a Humvee and read'.


Sam Mendes described Jake's earnest desire for a role that would make him surprise himself: 'I felt like he had not been stretched at all as an actor, but he was ready to be. And just meeting him, he was desperate to be punished on some level - made to feel things that he'd never felt before. You could say that he probably felt he's had it ... not easy, but not that difficult in his young acting life. Because, you know, he entered at a young age, and he's a goodlooking boy, and he's got showbiz family and all that kind of stuff, and he's come up sensing that that was always where he was going to go. But he felt, on some level, that he hadn't earned it. And he wanted to earn it. He wanted to work, and he wanted to explore himself. And I couldn't be more excited about the performance he gives.'



As this is a gratuitous post, here is a video which allows us to focus on the cost that Jake's hair suffered for the filming of Jarhead - the before and after.



Pictures from Getty.

Jamie Foxx's cast pose and Jake Gyllenhaal's Guide to Tucking In

With thanks to BBMISwear for being eagle-eyed, it's great to see that another picture has been released to help promote Jamie Foxx's celebrity-rich video for Blame It. Here you can see the stars that Jamie worked on during the Inauguration of Obama, or persuaded in subsequent phonecalls, including Jake 'I Love This Hat So Much I'm Gonna Keep It' Gyllenhaal. Source.


How to wear a shirt...

Not being a young man of fashion myself (or any creature of fashion, to be honest, or indeed even a young man), I happened to mention to a colleague today that I was rather intrigued by Jake's habit of only tucking in one side (or just part) of his shirt at the front. While, this is clearly extremely attractive for more reasons than I can possibly go into here, I wonderered whether this look was by accident or design. She looked at me as if I were old enough to be her great aunt and then revealed that she had once been a window dresser and The Manual suggests this semi-tucked in look as the perfect way to reveal a) a pleasing shirt b) a rather attractive and expensive belt c) whatever the shirt would be hiding if it entirely hung loose d) a hot man.


With this in mind, I went on a ramble around the male clothing shops of Oxford for evidence and it was not long before I found it, conveniently only a few doors down from Starbucks.


But if you want to see this look at its finest, you don't want to examine a lump of plastic in clothing, you need to take a butchers at the finest exemplar of this carefully disarranged trend.






And it's not just shirts either - t-shirts, woollies... or a combination of any of the aforementioned. The hat is an optional extra.



Includes pictures from IHJ, Just Jared and WDW.

[Updated]Jake raises the temperature in BH - Ashley remembers Jake, Gemma sobs her heart out, Jamie blames Obama

This post is interrupted by a warning of extreme heat in California - Jake Gyllenhaal was spotted today leaving a medical center in BH. You are advised to get a medical check yourself before embiggening these pictures... Don't say I didn't warn you.



Thanks IHJ! Gulp... On with the post

Our very favourite Staff Sgt, Jamie Foxx, has been talking about his inspiration for getting his celebrity chums together to make cameo appearances in the video for Blame It. It turns out it had nothing whatsoever to do with getting publicity for his new single - it's all because of the energy generated by a certain new President of the United States at his inauguration. This is what happens when you seat Jamie Foxx next to Ron Howard's mum...


'I was actually at the inauguration and there was so much great energy and there was Ron Howard and I sat next to his mom. I actually sang for her at the inauguration, just singing, and she started to tear up and we just bonded and the whole family just bonded ... so I was telling Mr. Howard, "Listen, how about you do a music video?" He's like, "What?" (I said), "Do this music video. I got a song coming out, I think it's going to be the song of the year and if you do it man, I would appreciate it." And he said, "I'll give you my number and call me." I said I'm going to ask Forest Whitaker and let him know that you're in, so I walked over and asked Forest and I asked Samuel and Samuel was like, "What! Want me to do what?" And I was like man it would be something fun. And then I called Jake Gyllenhaal who's my friend, I said, "Man, please come down, Ron Howard's going to be here." He said, "Listen Jamie, you don't have to lie to me, I'll come down. You know I don't come out and do things but I'll do it for you."'


Fast work indeed - the Inauguration was, I believe, on 20 January and the first pics were released just ten days later, on 30 January. However, one must be grateful to the pulling power of such friendships because, as Jake said, he rarely does these things.


Meanwhile, Ashley Tisdale - a.k.a. Dorky Girl in Donnie Darko - has been talking about her one scene with Jake in the aforementioned film - it's the one in the school hall where Donnie (and Dorky Girl) put questions to Dodgy Jim. I have never seen a High School Musical film (a.k.a. HSM), neverthless, it's great to hear Ashley talk about working with Jake because, hot on the heels of Gemma (a.k.a. Feisty Princess of Persia) Arterton's comments about Goofy Jake, it's clear Jake is as loveable on set now as he was back in the Very Indie Days of 2001. And he leaves a great impression.


'I was in one scene with him. I met him and he was the nicest guy in the entire world. At the premiere he even remembered who I was... I was there for a day. I had, like, two lines. But I'd like to actually do another scene with him, more.' Here is that scene. Something about mirrors, ego reflection, eating too much...



Talking of the Feisty Princess, Gemma has been on Breakfast TV talking about her TV and film career (amongst other things), and she mentioned that she was regularly seen crying on the set of the Prince of Persia. It turns out this had nothing to do with misery on the set, corsets too tight, Jake's pranks or the Gwyneth Proof Paltrow Syndrome - it's all the fault of Thomas Hardy and that wretched Tess of the D'Urbervilles: 'And then it was actually Tess that unlocked something in me. I became like a crying wreck – I couldn’t stop crying all the time. And then on the next film I did, Prince of Persia (with Jake Gyllenhaal), they kept saying to me, ‘Why are you crying all the time?’ I couldn’t get rid of Tess!' Just as well that Jake was a cheery presence on set. This must have helped.


After much searching, here is the only happy(ish) scene from the recent, wonderful, unspeakably depressing BBC production of Tess, which starred Gemma in the leading role and reduced her to a wreck that only Jake Gyllenhaal could salvage...



Includes pictures from IHJ.