Go to the Source

Looks like the publicity campaign for Source Code is gearing up. Director Duncan Jones spoke with several online journalists about the film and working with Jake Gyllenhaal. Meanwhile, Love & Other Drugs continues to open internationally, leading to more articles and new photos, like these found in this Danish source.

In contrast to his twittering, Jones was enthusiastic in his outlook for the film and its star:

Why did you go with Source Code? You were juggling a lot of potential projects at the time, and you ended up choosing this one. What was it about Source Code that brought you in?

The main reason I did it is that I wanted the opportunity to work with Jake Gyllenhaal. Like Sam Rockwell I think he’s one of those actors who is incredibly talented at who at the time – since then he’s done Prince of Persia and that – but at the time I thought he was a leading man who was funny and smart and handsome and had the talent to pull off any part. I had a chance to meet with Jake and at that time I was, as I usually am, I was trying to convince him to do one of my crazy projects, and he said “You know what, I’d like you to come on this film that I’m working on right now,” which was Source Code. I read it and thought it was really good and it would give me a chance to work with Jake on his turf, and hopefully if I do a good job and he enjoyed the process I can grab him to come and work on one of my films today.



Collider has a transcript of a group interview with Jones, as well as a video.

Question: What got you interested in this project?

Duncan Jones: There was a couple of things. We had just finished Moon. I wanted to have the opportunity to sort of work out what it’s actually like to work on…not so much a Hollywood film, because this is not a studio film, per se, but I wanted to understand what it was like to work over here and through more of the system. Stewart and I, who’s my producer, we sort of did Moon all ourselves, and it was very much our project. We controlled everything. We made all of the decisions. And I wanted to sort of go through the process over here a little bit and have the chance to work with, you know…Jake was a huge draw to me because I’m a big fan of his. I think he’s a terrific actor. Also ridiculously handsome in a very hetero way, but he’s a good looking guy, and he’s a leading man, you know. He’s a leading guy and I wanted to sort of work with him. I thought it would be really exciting.



Question: It’s weird, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a film with this kind of plot before, other than like, say, Groundhog Day. But Groundhog Day is nothing like this film.

Duncan Jones: Although there is more comedy in this than you might expect. There’s more humor in it. [laughs] But there’s also Jake, who is a funny guy. If you ask him to sort of let loose and be himself, he is a bit nutty in a really fun way. So rather than let the film get too dark, which was always a concern when we were, again, looking at the script, I wanted to make sure that we could bring the levity to it. Because I think it helps drama. I think drama is more effective when there’s levity there as well. You get that dichotomy.



Question: I’m curious if you could talk a little bit about the…After Moon there’s a lot of buzz on you because the movie is fucking great. I’m curious, was there a lot of debate over which project am I going to do as my follow-up? Like, did you feel that sort of pressure?

Duncan Jones: Yeah, absolutely. I mean I was very fortunate Source Code was as strong a script as it was. I was given a few things. There were some really interesting projects out there. Then there were some offers for some things which were maybe not so interesting, like the obvious, “If I want to do a studio film, go make this.” And I wasn’t ready…I didn’t want to do that. But Source Code kind of came out at the right time. We hadn’t really received as much of the critical acclaim for Moon at the time that I signed onto Source Code, so I was a little bit nervous. I wanted to make sure that I was going to get the chance to make another film. But Jake came along and we had a meeting, and I got on really well with him. It was kind of like with Sam. When I met up with Sam Rockwell, it almost didn’t matter what the project was, I just wanted the chance to work with Sam. And I wrote Moon because I wanted to work with Sam.

And with Jake it was sort of similar. When we met and I got on so well with him…and I know that he was really interested in working with some different kinds of directors. I mean he had just come off of Prince of Persia. I think it was a very different experience than what he had on Source Code. And I think the two of us kind of bonded and knew that we could have a lot of fun. I could kind of open things up to him to allow him to experiment and to try things that maybe he wouldn’t get to try on other films. I think that relationship between us was really built on trust and the fact that we wanted to work together. So Source Code is a script, it was almost just…We were just lucky that the script was as good as it was, because if it hadn’t been, we would have still wanted to work together and we would have done any other project. But Source Code was the one we did.