Cast of characters: Lou Howard Adam Anthony Billy Rob Loki

2015 is going to be a busy Jake year. He's drawing raves on Broadway for Constellations. And cinematically, things heat up as the long-awaited Nailed (retitled Accidental Love) hits VOD. The movie was shot seven years ago but feels even older than that. You can review the history here. I'm happy we finally get to see it, but it's a curiosity at best. Not too many reviews yet. One from Film Stage and a more positive spin from AV Club:

If there’s any good news here, it’s that, despite rumors to the contrary, Accidental Love is very much a coherent movie. It’s not incomplete; it’s just been sloppily completed—cobbled together, in other words, by filmmakers (or distribution cronies) looking to salvage a releasable product out of footage crying out to be reshot or reworked. Yet traces of Russell’s spirit, a humane screwball exuberance, poke through the compromised results. It’s there in the way the movie keeps stuffing a bunch of yammering eccentrics in a room together, and also in the bug-eyed performance the director coaxes out of Jake Gyllenhaal, whose character—a flip-flopping, libidinous politician—could have fit neatly into American Hustle. Russell fans owe it to themselves to see this disowned disaster, painful as that act of completism will be.



For a darker movie and brighter film, check out Nightcrawler, out on DVD this week in the U.S. The Boston Globe has a nice review of the movie and Jake:

It’s a rare actor who can shift from appealing to unsettling and back again as smoothly as Jake Gyllenhaal. He’s certainly creepy in “Nightcrawler” (2014), as Lou Bloom, an oddball newbie videographer trolling LA for blood-spattered footage that he can shop to the local TV news. In a lone quick featurette, writer-turned-director Dan Gilroy (“The Bourne Legacy”) explains that the character is modeled in part on noted 1940s New York crime shutterbug Weegee. But we half-wonder if Gyllenhaal and Gilroy might also have been thinking of Budd Schulberg’s inside-showbiz novel, “What Makes Sammy Run?” Between Lou’s slimy careerism and the dark LA setting, it feels a bit like we’re watching a socially challenged version of archetypal aspiring weasel Sammy Glick. It’s also tightly coiled strangeness on a par with what we’ve seen Gyllenhaal deliver in his “Donnie Darko” breakout and, just recently, in the doppelganger freakout “Enemy” and as a haunted detective in “Prisoners.” He’s so adept at this sort of thing, you’d think it might put him in the Anthony Perkins category, pigeonholed with cause. But try putting together a videofest of Gyllenhaal’s weirdest work and some of his better mainstream-charismatic stuff — plus “Brokeback Mountain,” of course — and see if you don’t wind up disoriented. He’s well cast in the smart, underrated time-travel thriller “Source Code.” He’s all down-home likability as a teen science enthusiast in the early-career effort “October Sky.” And he even lends some feeling to the popcorn devastation of “The Day After Tomorrow.” Not bad for a nightcrawler.



Indiewire reflects on Jake's 9 Best Performances, including Enemy:

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There's also news of Jake's other 2015 releases. First up, a still from Southpaw:



That looks uncomfortable!



There hasn't been much news on Everest but I found this on IMDb:

Jason Clarke is the lead, Jake & Josh are supporting. All are excellent.

It is an ensemble film, but Jason as Rob seems to have more screen time focused on him than the others. Should be a hit, possible Oscar contender, especially in technical categories - cinematography, sound, editing. I saw a screening recently and really enjoyed it. The runtime was just over 2 hours, on this site it says 2 1/2, maybe that was a different cut. ...

Do most of the supporting cast get a decent amount of screen time? Is this one of the most realistic movies based on mountain climbing to hit the big screen?

Yes, the main characters all get ample screen time, but like I said, the focus seems to be on Rob Hall as the expedition leader. Emily Watson really shines as the operations manager at base camp. Robin Wright and Keira Knightly only have a few scenes but make an impact. Haven't seen too many mountain climbing movies (Eiger Sanction comes to mind), and I know this wasn't actually filmed on Everest (there were a few unfinished SFX shots which made me realize this fact), but it looked real to me.

Everest is a movie for all audiences and should do pretty well on its own with good reviews and word of mouth, it's an excellent film. They would be wise to possibly hold the release until later in the year for academy award marketing.

You wont be disappointed. I knew very little about the actual events before the screening and was completely enthralled, have since done some research and the movie gets a lot right, and yes, is very respectful and honest.

Going back to Loki: I don't remember seeing this. I think it's the London Apple Store panel for Prisoners:

When stars align...

… good things happen:

Jake Gyllenhaal has booked his Broadway debut in “Constellations,” a project that will reunite him with writer Nick Payne and director Michael Longhurst of “If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet,” the play in which Gyllenhaal starred Off Broadway in 2012.

Payne’s play “Constellations” earned raves when it bowed in 2012 at London’s Royal Court, where the show starred Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins in a premiere also helmed by Longhurst. The title went on to a West End run and has been circling New York ever since, arriving in Gotham in a staging produced by the Manhattan Theater Club and the Royal Court by special agreement with commercial entities Ambassador Theater Group and Dodger Properties.



The two-hander follows a romance between a beekeeper (Gyllenhaal) and a scientist who studies quantum mechanics, taking a fractured, quick-shifting approach to telling their tale as an exploration of the quantum-mechanics theory of coexisting parallel universes.

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But sometimes the universe has other plans:





I'll never not want to see this movie. I hope it gets some kind of release.

Business matters

Jake Gyllenhaal was papped visiting Murakami Sushi in Hollywood. Though from the video below, it seems like he might have arrived early.



We're all hoping that's a hot new script under his arm.

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In case you haven't, vote for Jake in the Best Science Fiction Actor category in the Scream Awards:

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Wondering what's happening with Nailed? Well, the producer's creditors made an appearance in Bankruptcy Court this week.

An attorney for Raspberry Financial, an entity that recently took control of the assets of the unreleased movie Nailed, insisted that his company is separate from Tutor, although it appears Tutor still holds some interest in the movie. Although the director of Nailed, David O. Russell, has left the project, the rep for Raspberry insisted they are spending at least $750,000 more, beyond $7 million already invested, to complete the movie.

Some Nailed photos, the first above and last below are new to me:





That's a lovely ensemble, Jake!

(Last Nailed photo cropped from a Just Back flickr shot. Murakami pic courtesy of IHJ.)

All aboard the SC promo train

Lots of new stills from Source Code, plus interviews with Jake Gyllenhaal, Michelle Monaghan, Duncan Jones et al, at Trailer Addict. Plus three videos of b-roll from the set and a new scene. First up, Jake's interview:







The new scene. You might not want to watch - spoiler alert! (The spoiler is written on the video, so jump down if you don't even want to read it.)



Wired also ran a spoilery article sbout the science of SC.

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There's news of Jake's other projects, as well. First up, a scene from the Love & Other Drugs Blue Ray:



You can watch a second deleted scene here.

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Finally, news on unseen/unfilmed Jake projects. Variety reports that Jake is in talks to film a new movie with David Ayers, writer of Training Day and director of :

Exclusive: David Ayer is set to write and direct his latest cop drama "End of Watch," with Jake Gyllenhaal in early discussions to star.
Ayer and John Lesher will produce through Ayer's Crave Films and Lesher's Le Grisibi's Productions.

Plot details are vague; pic's being described as a gritty cop drama that follows the friendship between longtime partners. Ayer and Lesher are still putting the movie together and are out to financiers, so no production date has been set.



Deadline has information on the Nailed test screening:

The trouble is, he washed his hands of the film last summer because of all the money problems, and I'm told that last night's screening played like an assemblage of rough footage, without the nuance Russell would have injected had he finished.

The backers are going to shop the film for distribution, but it is obvious that Russell will do everything he can to appeal to the Directors Guild to remove his name.

And here's a not a very encouraging report from someone who saw the screening.

Fit for a Prince

Update: The LA Times has a story about Jake's move into potential franchise territory. There's some good stuff:

On a recent trip to promote the Disney adventure film, Gyllenhaal seemed wide-eyed but also amused by his career detour into blockbuster madness. He grinned at more than 4,000 fans who cheered him at a pop-culture expo called WonderCon but also kept an ironic detachment from the scene; during a question-and-answer session, a fan asked the actor what moment in history he would visit if he could turn back time (as his character in the move can do), and after a pause he answered with a straight face: "I would go back and watch my birth."



Clearly, Gyllenhaal is not taking himself or his new movie too seriously, although he gushes about the movie's dazzle, adrenaline and vintage movie-serial soul. "I actually jump out of a window and land on the back of my horse, just like in the old movie, Zorro-style," he said with the expression of a teenager who just hopped off, like, the best roller coaster ever. It's no surprise that the athletic actor, who was nominated for an Oscar for "Brokeback Mountain," finds himself going from indie-spirited work into the Comic-Con cinema zone; that's the template after the success of Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Christian Bale and Tobey Maguire in summer franchises.



Newell, who has known Gyllenhaal since he was a youngster, said the actor is ideal for the role because he has an aura of effortless charm around him and an almost boyish sense of wonder. "He puts a human heart in the middle of a movie that will absolutely need one to connect with the audience," he said.



He says his time in the desert was, on one level, really just a wardrobe experiment. "I grew up with filmmakers and I consider myself a filmmaker, sort of, but as an actor taking on a role I know that I'm just a piece of a situation. What I mean by that is you become part of the story that will be up there on the screen and that makes you want to try a really wide variety of situations. You try on a coat, you wear it for a while and you give it back. That's what acting is.... Sometimes as an actor you just want to try something on."

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Or take something off :) These photos of a shirtless Jake Gyllenhaal filming a scene for Prince of Persia have made their way around the internet. But even if you've already seen them, I think they deserve a post of their own!

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Found some photos of Jake at the post-WonderCon party. More of Jake and his bevy of admirers here:

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Posted this in the last post, but if you haven't read this Daily Beast story on Nailed, it's definitely worth a look. Depressing but informative. In other non-uplifting news, an early and middling PoP review. Good words about Jake, at least, though some of this could be seen as faint praise:

Of the cast, Jake Gyllenhaal does an admirable job as the titular Prince Dastan. To avoid the furore that would doubtless have enveloped the film had this Persian Prince spoken in an American accent, Gyllenhaal delivers his lines in an accomplished (if equally out of place) English one. As an action hero he neither fits the type of the muscle-bound bore (like say, Sam Worthington or Gerard “charisma vacuum” Butler) nor the weedy, pretty-boy (like Orlando Bloom) and therefore manages to avoid being hateful as the film’s conventional, in-offensive protagonist figure.

Brothers Nailed Prince of Persia

This week has been a Prince of Persia extravaganza, but we did get some new shots for Brothers. Only one shot of Jake Gyllenhaal (with Natalie Portman). But perhaps it is a good sign that Lionsgate remembers the movie is out in a month!



Today is Sam Shepard's 66th birthday - so Happy Birthday to the man who plays Jake's father in Brothers.



An accomplished playwright, screenwriter and actor, Shepard was the source of this amusing moment for Brothers director Jim Sheridan:

Stage actors adhere to a playwright's words. But movie actors, more committed to the action portrayed, often change dialogue. For a dinner scene in this ensemble about a family changed by the war in Afghanistan, director Jim Sheridan remembers actors Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Tobey Maguire talking about who would say what: "We were having a grand old time rewriting the script, when in walked Sam Shepard, who was playing the father but who, of course, is a great playwright. And Sam said, 'Isn't this a fantastic scene?' Immediately, we shut up and performed David Benioff's scene just as he wrote it."

I'm sure Benioff was happy to hear that. As hard as it is to remember, Brothers was shot during the writers strike, so Benioff could not be on set for the filming:

CS: This is an interesting time because there's a highly-publicized strike going on and you have like a thousand projects in the works in various stages of being filmed. How's that been working out? I know that "Brothers" just started filming in New Mexico...
Benioff: Yeah, "Brothers" they're shooting in Santa Fe, and unfortunately, I can't be there with them, because I'm not allowed to be on set, so maybe with any luck, the strike will be over before the movie finishes shooting, and I can fly over there and check it out. I've never not been on set for at least a part of the time for any movie that I've written, and it would be sad if I couldn't see them for a little bit.

CS: Did you get a chance to spend some time with Jim Sheridan beforehand?
Benioff: I did and we were working together pretty intensively right up until the deadline, which was a great experience. I was working with Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal and Natalie Portman and that was also a lot of fun.



He goes on to discuss the idea of remaking a Danish film, believing that it makes more sense for the story to be set in America:

Benioff: Yeah, I think the American setting part actually makes a lot of sense. In a weird way, it's one of those movies where the original I thought was such a great movie, but it kind of makes more sense being about Americans, because there are like 50 Danish soldiers in Afghanistan. It's not like a real big national issue for them. Obviously, there are thousand and thousands of Americans there, and it's much more of present in the American psyche. As wonderful as that movie was, moving it to America didn't frighten me as much as it would with certain remakes...

Making things even more interesting is the current state of the war in Afghanistan. This is much more of a hot topic now than it was at the time the movie was filmed. Tobey Maguire discussed the pressures and issues soldiers face, in his recent interview with the LA Times.

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IGN has a Video Rewind feature, in which Prince of Persia creator Jordan Mechner reviews and comments on the trailer, including the first moment he saw Jake Gyllenhaal on set.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at IGN.com

"One of the really cool moments for me was meeting Jake in character, in costume on set, and seeing that he had the dagger of time in his belt. I was like, "Excuse me - is that..." "Yeah, do you want to hold it?"

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time at IGN.com

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Finally, some news on the production company for Nailed. Lots more legal woes - it's a mess and it's too late for me to sort through. But this could be promising:

There are other movies Bergstein's companies did finance that might be releasable, including "Nailed," a $33 million production directed by David O. Russell and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jessica Biel and Tracy Morgan. "Nailed" was shut down several times during production by SAG and the DGA, but Bergstein resolved the concerns of those guilds.

Matthew Rhodes, a producer on "Nailed," said there are funds for postproduction, and "Nailed" will be offered to domestic distributors and international buyers next year at Cannes. He called the movie "fantastic" and "wonderful."



We need to see this movie! I hope that isn't just spin, and that the movie really can be saved. And seen.

(Photos courtesy of IHJ.)

Check the source

More trouble on the set of Jake Gyllenhaal's movie Nailed. Production of the film has shut down again. Hollywood insider Nikki Finke reported the news this morning.

... IATSE today ordered its crew off the political comedy Nailed because they weren't paid. There are no plans to resume filming until next Thursday at the earliest. This is the 2nd time IATSE has moved to protect its union members, but only after the Screen Actors Guild first sounded the alarm bell over Capitol Films' cash crunch and instructed its actors to leave the set earlier this month. Because of this, it's been start and stop, start and stop, again and again. Isn't it that after three strikes, you're out? But, amazingly, both co-stars Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal are hanging in even though these shutdowns are a major pain in the ass for them and Russell and everyone else connected with the movie. I'm told the production is officially one week behind schedule, and this latest debacle will push it back two weeks.

Of course, GyllenBabble readers knew last night that trouble was afoot. It's an interesting world we live in, where fans know the news before it's fit to print.

With the Memorial Day weekend upon us, I guess Jake will have a little more time to relax, work out. Maybe go to the beach...





While he's seaside, maybe Jake will go over the Prince of Persia script, which was analyzed by Latino Review last year. The grade was an A- and they called PoP "one hell of a script."

I haven't read it - I assume there are spoilers. And since we know Jake's character has a best friend in the current script and he doesn't in the LR review, then obviously things have changed. But it's a good start! And since the folks at Latino Review were the ones who had the scoop on Jake's casting, I'm going to have a little faith in them. And Jake.


Summer blockbuster 2009, here we come.

(Photos courtesy of IHJ.)

Updated: Nailed derailed?

Saturday afternoon update, from a FITS commenter:
the movie was only shut down for the day and it was on Friday (we had extras at the State House on Friday)…i hear they are back to filming starting possibly Monday and definitely Tuesday. I work in the State House and they have filmed a lot there and will be back Monday or Tuesday we are told

Let's hope this poster has or is a good source!

UPDATE from Nikki Finke (and it doesn't look any better):

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: I'm told by knowledgeable sources that David O. Russell's indie political comedy Nailed which began filming April 15th was shut down by the Screen Actors Guild on Thursday because of a "cash crunch". I've also learned the shoot is in trouble with both the IATSE and Teamsters unions, and some members have left the beleaguered production. Rumors also are circulating that the state of South Carolina could withdraw its incentive monies because of the financing problems. An insider confirms for me: "SAG told the actors to leave on Thursday. And then the actors came back on Friday. It's been touch and go the entire time. The financiers are doing the best they can. There's been a cash crunch, that's for sure. It's a drag, but they'll muddle though. Everyone seems happy and committed to the movie and hopeful all this stuff will get worked out." I'm told Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel and the other name actors are all standing by to see if the movie can continue to completion.


Hollywood insider Nikki Finke broke some interesting, unsettling news about the movie Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel are filming in Columbia, S.C. According to Finke's sources, filming has been halted due to financing issues.

I'm told by knowledgeable sources that David O. Russell's indie pic Nailed may have been put on hold yesterday. It's a risque political comedy starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Jessica Biel who sources say are standing by to see if the movie can continue to completion. The script co-written by Al Gore's daughter Kristen (once a staff writer on Futurama) and Russell began filming April 15th. Details are sketchy, but I've gleaned that the pic's predicament is related to its financing, not to its helmer Russell. ...

One source with insider knowledge about the production tells me, "The actors are waiting to see if the movie will continue. It's kind of amazing, really."

Nailed director David O. Russell is no stranger to tumult. It's worth checking this link in Finke's column. It's Lily Tomlin's reaction to the infamous videos making their appearance on YouTube. She's remarkably sanguine about it, seeming to hold no ill will toward Russell. James Caan and George Clooney probably have a different take.
I hope when all is said and done on Nailed that Jake has no regrets!

Jake's been pretty lucky with his movies, which have all made it to completion and release. Well, except Highway. Piiilot!




Sorry, had a Pilot moment there.

We'll keep you updated as news comes in. Maybe the FITS folks can stop making stuff up or using the site as a personal ad and actually get a real scoop!

(Pics courtesy of IHJ and FL's photo shop skills.)

Setside with Jake and Reese

More photos of Reese Witherspoon joining Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of "Nailed." According to some reports, the filming day was long and hot. It's nice that Jake had some company!








(Photos from FITS)