All is quiet in the land of Jake Gyllendom following the excitement of the award shows a week ago. Jake is back in NYC where he has been enjoying the sunshine on bike and on foot. The paps have been just a step or two behind. The confirmations continue that Jake is indeed signed up to the Disney musical Into the Woods, alongside his End of Watch co-star, the extremely overloaded with talent Anna Kendrick. The film also has a release date for the US - 25 December 2014. What a Chrimbo present! Thanks very much to IHJ for the photos!
Maggie, meanwhile, has been busy promoting White House Down which opens in the US next week (and in the UK on the distant 6 September). The film is, of course, directed by a man with many Gyllenhaalinks - Roland Emmerich.
WDW Jane Austen Interlude
Last week, we took a trip into the beautiful countryside of Hampshire to take a look at the village of Chawton, the home of Jane Austen, the place in which she wrote Pride and Prejudice. It's a stunning house, a modest home for a rector's family, filled with memories. It's also full of evocative objects - lace crafted by Jane, her tiny table at which she wrote, her treasured objects and those of her family, her handmade gifts to nieces. Dresses of the day are recreated and the rooms look as Jane would have known them. The village itself is gorgeous, with the picture postcard cottages almost on top of one another. You can almost imagine the talk going on behind windows, in gardens, on country walks and at balls that fills these wonderful novels.
In the village churchyard, you can pay your respects to Jane's sister and mother. Jane is buried in Winchester Cathedral.
Next to the church is the grand Chawton House that was owned by Jane's brother. No doubt Jane would have attended balls here just as Elizabeth Bennett did in her local grand house, very possibly based upon this one.
While risking the possibility that this post may look just the same as yesterday's, here are some photos of Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena on location on the streets of LA for End of Watch. I may be getting little shivers of deja vu but these pictures were taken on set yesterday (17 August) and feature a very smiley if baldy Jake. In this video, Michael Pena talks a little about the filming.
LoveFilm is giving the new DVD and Blu ray of Source Code a big push in the UK. As part of that, it features a great interview with Duncan Jones, in which the director talks about making Source Code and Moon and makes some hints about his next project. He also mentions again how Source Code was obedient to the will of Prince of Persia.
'The whole shoot hinged around that – Jake had just finished Prince Of Persia and would be travelling the world for goodness knows how long to do press for that movie. So it really was all hands on deck to find a way to do it in that time-frame and within the budget that we had.'
On this page you can tell LoveFilm all about your favourite Jake movie.
Talking of Jake's directors, last weekend I attended the huge Empire Big Screen event at the O2 in London. One of the biggest directors to make an appearance was Roland Emmerich who, of course, did a great job of directing Jake in The Day After Tomorrow, one of my favourite Gyllenmovies. I was delighted to see the long line of people waiting to get an autograph from Roland and I was very fortunate to see him in the more intimate setting of the press room. He did talk about how lucky he's been to work with such good Hollywood actors, including Jake.
It's been a day of chaos (and some rather ugly snowmen) in southern England due to rather a lot of snow and, even though Jake Gyllenhaal is enjoying the relatively balmy climes of Los Angeles, I'm sure he is with us wintry folk in spirit and is no doubt reliving his Montreal TDAT experiences. By all accounts, The Big Freeze forecast in The Day After Tomorrow was as nothing compared to the reality outside on the streets of the Canadian city. As an antidote, this post has Hot Pics.
'During his lunch break on one of the final days of shooting last spring, Emmerich said making The Day After Tomorrow has been a tough slog and it would've been even harder if they'd been shooting on the streets of Montreal at well-below-zero temperatures. "With really low temperatures and the wind machines going, the actors would've had frost-bite after one scene", Emmerich said.'
'Most of Day After was shot in freezing temperatures in Montreal. "It was cold inside the stages, it was cold outside, it was cold as hell at night," said Quaid. "We couldn't escape from it. It got to the point where we learned to recognize people not by their faces but by the color of their parkas." Of course, with all the special effects, the actors were often called upon to react to fake wind, rain and waves. "I enjoyed it, but it does get to you after awhile," said Gyllenhaal. In any case, the cast and crew have all had enough of the cold to last them awhile. So if there should be an instant ice age, Emmerich said you can look for him in Mexico, while Quaid said he'll be holed up somewhere with the book Survival for Dummies.' Jake has yet to reveal his Ice Age plans.
Jake has however talked about his stuntman capabilities and confirmed his vertigo issues: 'Um (long pause) I'm a little freaked out by heights. I never thought I was but I am. I remember I went to the Eiffel Tower when I was little with my parents. I thought I would like going up, but when I got to the second level I was crying and I didn't want to go up - I was eight years old or something. My dad was like, "He's coming to the top! That's my boy!" Yeah, and he stayed down on the second level. [So you won't be jumping off any buildings then?] That's for Jackie Chan and for stuntmen - I'll leave that to the professionals. But if they called for it I would do it. In this movie I did some moves up on the Russian ship. There's one moment – it's not in the movie anymore – where I nearly fall and grab with one hand, and they said did I want to wear a harness but I was like naah, I don't really want to wear a harness, I'm fine.'
'[But did you feel threatened by the wolves?] They didn't actually exist then. You could take that scene out of the movie and put that in Donnie Darko and it looks like a schizophrenic kid running away from nothing. [You've been linked with lots of superhero roles – are you tempted?] I think that the metaphor of the superhero is a really amazing one. When you play those roles you get in the suit and the suit plays itself, so if I were to play one of those roles I would be interesting in bringing myself to it. But then the fear is that then you become that thing and you're stuck with it. I would love to if it was great and I really believed in it and I felt like I could spend many months of my life devoted to it and then talking about it.'
Arjay Smith also remembered Jake's stunt exploits but his memory had wire in it: '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.'
It seems that the world benefited in other ways from Wet Sam - through trees: 'I decided I had to get involved with something,’ [Jake] says. ‘something that would help the environmental cause. I’d much rather talk about the environment than some gigantic action movie. Global warming is a hugely important issue.’ ...He has chosen to support a forest in Mozambique and talks enthusiastically of how he has ‘bought mango trees, fruit trees, nut trees’. He adds: ‘they also give jobs and food. People can get an income from them, which is important for sustainable development’.' Of course, Jake didn't realise at the time that I have a violent mango allergy, or he would've resisted putting more of the blasted things on the planet.
As we've mentioned before here, at the NYC premiere of The Day After Tomorrow, Jake took advantage of the fake snow and wind machines to lob snowballs down the red carpet - but this didn't mean he still couldn't flirt the feet from under the reporters: ''Incoming!' hollers JAKE GYLLENHAAL, who plays the scientist's son, as he lobs a snowball down the aisle. 'What do you think about being a hunk?' a reporter from US Weekly asks him. 'The real question is, a hunk of what?'' Mr. Gyllenhaal says, as he reaches forward and gently touches her face. 'You have a little soap on your chin,'' he says.' Talk about melting...
One thing about doing a big summer blockbuster is that its publicity can take an actor on a tour of the world - thanks to new old pics from IHJ we can see Jake Gyllenhaal, Roland Emmerich, Emmy Rossum and Dennis Quaid at the Tokyo premiere of the Day After Tomorrow, which took place at the Virgin Cinema in the Roppongi Hills Building on May 31, 2004. I've always liked these pictures and it's good to see more of them (I think I like to see Jake holding a bunch of flowers).
In this video, Jake, Emmy Rossum and Dennis Quaid discuss The Day After Tomorrow and what it was like working with blue screens and a whole lot of weather.
The undertaking of this film was a serious business, requiring lengthy discussions of its message 'Every day. We got together. We had meetings in the basement at Columbia University [laughs]. No, I think first and foremost we were all in it because we just wanted to make a lot [of money]. No ... [laughs again]. Whenever I would get down, or I'd be having a hard time, or I'd be in the middle of nowhere in the cold in Montreal, I'd always say to myself stuff like "At least this movie has something to say." ... I don't think it was, like, conscious. ... But ... we think it's an issue that's really important.'
'Every day we got together and discussed it (laughs). No, I think for me, whenever I would get down or I'd be having a hard time or I'd be in the middle of nowhere in the cold in Montreal I'd always say to myself, 'At least this movie has something to say. I don't this it was conscious in us, looking at the monitor and being like, 'did you get that minority in there?' but we all think it's an issue that's really important.'
When in Japan for the premiere, it was a theme that the cataclysmic weather of TDAT was as nothing compared to the winter chill of Montreal: 'Most of "Day After" was filmed in freezing temperatures in Montreal. "It was cold inside the stages, it was cold outside, it was cold as hell at night," said Quaid. "We couldn't escape from it. It got to the point where we learned to recognize people not by their faces but by the color of their parkas." Of course, with all the special effects, most of the time, the actors were called upon to react to fake wind, rain and waves. "I enjoyed it, but it does get to you after awhile," said Gyllenhaal. In any case, the cast and crew have all had enough of the cold to last them for awhile. So if there should be an instant ice age, Emmerich said you can look for him in Mexico, while Quaid said he'll be holed up somewhere with the book "Survival for Dummies."'
The premieres took place in the the more clement month of May, but that didn't stop the filmmakers from bringing sticky snow to the red carpet - as can be seen in this video of Emmy Rossum, Gerard Butler and Roland Emmerich in London.
Yesterday (Friday), Jessica Biel was photographed arriving at the Wildfire post-production studios in LA, where she is doing voiceover work for Nailed. Now this has to be good news and an indication that perhaps this film is at last receiving its finishing touches. At least, Nailed is in a fit enough state for there to be a voiceover, and that's got to be good. I also like Jessica's jumper - after yesterday's post, I think Jake would like it too.
Voiceovers are not to be sniffed at. They take skill and can play a huge role in setting the mood and tone of a film, not to mention shifting the plot and characterisation along and creating a relationship between the speaker and his listeners. While Jake Gyllenhaal is at an advantage when it comes to voiceovers - just listen to that voice of his - he still has admitted to finding them tricky and his most perfect voiceover, for Jarhead, didn't start off that way and nearly lost Jake the much-wanted role.
In DVD Review, both Sam Mendes and Jake discussed with some honesty how Jake messed up the voiceover for his audition, so much so that, even though Jake was Sam's first choice, Sam turned to look at other actors, leaving Jake to phone him in the middle of the night, fighting to get another chance. Sam said: 'Jake didn't nail the audition. He was very much who I wanted straight away but when he came in he didn't audition well.. When he started reading I thought 'Who is Swofford and who is this guy?' The problem with writing a movie based on a book that's a first-person narrative is that, often, the least clear thing about the book is the person writing it.'
According to Jake, 'I had a really hard time with the narration and it was almost the thing that didn't get me the part. When I came in and read for Sam, he made me read the voiceover. It was really literary and I really thought that I fucked up... and I did fuck it up!... He turned and said to me, 'You didn't seal the deal, I have to tell you!' That's his way of saying that I had just fucked it up. I had a hard time with that.' To get over this, Jake was given Swofford's original journal: 'It was a little green book... and it had on it a song lyric which was so cheesy and young, and kind of sweet in alot of ways.. Then when you open it up it's about how many girls he wants to fuck and how many people he's going to fucking kill and blah-blah-bah, he's on watch and it sucks and this guy sucks and they kicked our asses today - not the same perspective that the book was in. And I just thought, 'That's who I'm playing, not the guy who wrote the book!'
Sam came back round to wanting Jake, 'When I first saw him at the initial audition, I thought, 'Maybe Swofford isn't this, maybe he's something else. maybe he's much more hardcore, more silent and private and inaccessible.' So I met with a lot of other actors and I read the part with them all to try and see what kind of a person Tony was. Every week there'd be a new draft and then, eventually, I came full circle to Jake. It took me a while to realise what I wanted.'
Jake also told Entertainment Weekly about his first audition in Sam's New York apartment: 'It was really, really literary and hard to get your mouth around... I couldn't connect. I thought I'd f---ed it up' and while Jake was filming Brokeback Mountain he was troubled at the thought of Sam auditioning other actors.
This is a far cry from the time when the very young Jake was being put through his action hero paces on the set of The Day After Tomorrow. Back in June 2004, producer Mark Gordon and director Roland Emmerich told SFX magazine, with not a little humour, how they set about making their vision a reality, complete with CGI and wet actors. As Roland says: 'If you make a film that has amazing images, you can still bore people to death.' Obviously they avoided this straightaway by hiring Jake Gyllenhaal.
It was all new for Jake as Roland describes: 'As he'd only done small, independent movies he was really excited to come and do a movie like this... It was an opportunity for him to be really physical. The toughest scene for him was the one in the water tank. Water is always tricky. If you're standing hip-deep in the stuff and you have to do the same scene over and over again, and on top of this it's raining on you, and there are wind machines blowing in your face... well, it's not very attractive. We tried to make it as pleasant as possible for him.'
''We gave them umbrellas occasionally,' deadpans Gordon.'
I was amused to read here that the 'rapscallions behind South Park had received a leaked copy of The Day After Tomorrow screenplay, and had plotted to make their own, alternative version, filmed in absolute secrecy and then released on the same day as the bona fide original. A version made with puppets. 'They're not doing that', says Emmerich, with the air of a man who never once found this idea even remotely amusing.' They called Rupert Murdoch: 'And when Rupert wants to take care of business, he takes care of business, and he took care of it for us...'' I hope they still have their kneecaps.
Jake has said that one of his favourite scenes is the one where tornados devastate his home town of LA. Apparently ''A lot of people wanted me to cut that bit out and I said, 'Only over my dead body,' says Emmerich 'I've had to live in this town for 14 years and I didn't enjoy it one bit.' Sounds fair enough to me.
As you can tell, I've been having a winter's day going through my old Jake scrapbooks, which go back quite a few years. And I rediscovered this newspaper cutting which gives us some idea of what dreams drove Jake to be in the movies in the first place: 'Ever since I was a little boy, I've know what I wanted to be: a bird. Unfortunately, I was not that great at flying, so I gave that occupation up. I felt depressed that I did not have something to look forward to when I grew up. But since the day I saw my first movie, my worries were over.'
'There in front of me was a 'scween' (as I called it then). After the screen opened, people started moving around on it. It amazed me! It was a momentous occasion. It confirmedwhat I would do when I grew up - sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had not gone to that movie, but I did. And it gave me the 'key' to my acting future!'
And finally...
Prince Dastan's rather fine and gorgous foe, Toby Kebbell, attended the UK premiere of Leo DiCaprio's Body of Lies last week and, according to Empire, Toby is currently 'training hard for his big fight scene with Jake Gyllenhaal.' (I couldn't help myself from correcting the spelling of Gyllenhaal...). Now, I would pay good money to see this big sizzling fight scene, and I expect I will, over and over and over...
Includes pictures from links, IHJ, Getty and scans from WDW.
This holiday weekend Indiana Jones is the film to see. Four years ago, over Memorial Weekend, another blockbuster was released to great public anticipation, largely due, perhaps, to some impressive CGI. Many filmgoers may well have left the theatre with Jake Gyllenhaal on the brain - I know I did.
When The Day After Tomorrow opened in London: 'The premiere was met with a climate change demonstration, plus a one-man protest on the roof of the Odeon cinema by a man dressed in a Superman costume. Writer and director Roland Emmerich, who also made Independence Day and Godzilla, said he would not be making any more disaster movies. "I know this will be my last disaster movie," he said.' Until 2008 and 2012, that is.
A few days earlier in NYC: 'If you sit on the steps of The Museum of Natural History to catch some sun on Tuesday, and notice how spanking clean everything looks, thank the producers of The Day After Tomorrow. At the premiere of the global warming/ice age-themed film, machines spewed soap bubbles all over Central Park West, soaking attendees and baffling passersby. Ruining their shoes on the sopping white towel of a carpet along with stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Dennis Quaid were Kirsten Dunst, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Saarsgard, Al Franken, Ja Rule, Chelsea Clinton and Ian Klaus, and Susan Sarandon, whose daughter Eva Amurri held hands with an unidentified handsome date. We can’t imagine the environmental effects of the dry white gook coating the front of the museum and surrounding trees. We asked a staffer what exactly it was. “Oh, you know. White stuff.”'
After the premiere, there was quite a party: 'After the screening in the museum's Le Frak theater, about 1,000 guests moved to a party in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life. The party itself was toned down compared to the large-scale arrival event. Restaurant Associates' catering included passed hors d'oeuvres and a buffet with pesto ravioli and a cubed watermelon and goat cheese salad. Pretty decor including white lilies and roses recalled the snowy demise of thousands of Manhattanites in the film—a quiet bit of irony amid the festive party with dance music and martinis.'
You can read an interesting account of what it was like to attend the NYC premiere here.
As for the 'white stuff' that stood in for snow during the filming of TDAT, Jake told Entertainment Weekly, 'Whenever I sneezed, it looked like a mixture of...well, never mind. It was disgusting for months after.' Incidentally, I did enjoy this article's account of the wolf scene: 'On the massive Montreal set, star Gyllenhaal, late of such very non-actiony films as ''Donnie Darko'' and ''The Good Girl,'' gets his cheeks pinked and bangs frosted, then begins an odd chase scene around the freighter, as he flees from...nothing -- the wolves will be added later. After a few takes, Emmerich remarks to his young actor that he's terribly fleet of foot. Gyllenhaal grins beneath frosty eyebrows and replies in perfect movie trailerese, ''Faster's better: Bigger...faster...funnier!''
'The film's cast and crew, for their part, seem pleased (and slightly puzzled) with ''DAT'''s environmental side effect. ''I can't believe a movie has to be the warning,'' Gyllenhaal says. ''I mean, fly into Los Angeles one day and look at the smog.'' ...and Gyllenhaal is remarkably unruffled at the possibility of becoming America's next action star: ''I'd never want to do anything if I looked at it like that -- I'd be like, F -- - it, I'll just stay home,'' he says. ''I'm really tired of people taking big summer movies too seriously, you know? We should all have a little fun.''
Jake and Reese out in LA and Brentwood over the holiday weekend
Because it is a holiday weekend after all, it's not been surprising to have had torrential rain all day, almost up to TDAT proportions - well, not quite. And it turns out it's not only raining in England. There is holiday weather in LA too. With grateful thanks to IHJ, we have new photographs of Jake and Reese out in LA this weekend, not only once but twice! The second set were taken outside Katsuya restaurant in Brentwood. Thanks, Stephanie.
