Showing shoulders

Possible future roles

"It takes Bell less than three seconds to come to the conclusion that he has no regrets and slightly longer to decide if he has yet to experience professional disappointment.

"I don't go up for a huge amount of stuff because most of it is bad. But Walter Salles is making a movie of Jack Kerouac's On the Road and I went to meet him and do a reading. And straight away the part was offered to Jake Gyllenhaal. He's a great actor, older, more experienced but I was bummed. It would've been amazing to work with Salles."

Later that evening, Bell swaps his tweed trousers, T-shirt and battered trainers for a shiny suit and expensive shoes.

Introducing the film, he is slick and sure of himself but when he apologises sweetly to his mother for the sex scenes, there's a glimpse of the boy. At the party, Scots Franz Ferdinand perform an acoustic version of Hallam Foe Dandelion Blow, the song they wrote for the film after Bell found himself next to the guitarist on a plane". Source: Telegraph.co.uk/arts

"They were the rock stars of their day, a moment in which Levi's were the hot American import, neon lights were beginning their gaudy transformation of Parisian boulevards. Tattoos and piercing were omnipresent. Coke -still laced with cocaine- was imbibed.

Those five artists were Picasso, Chagall, Rivera, Soutine and Modigliani! This true story has never been told. But it will be now, if producer/director/writer Linda Yellen has her way. Yellen, of "Playing for Time," "Chantilly Lace," "Parallel Lives," "Sweet Bird of Youth" fame, has a fascinating script ready to go, titled "The Hive." James Franco
and Gena Rowlands are attached, and almost every hot young actor in the business has been approached, and many have expressed interest, in playing one of the legendary painters. Yellen's dream cast? The already onboard Franco, followed by Jake Gyllenhaal, Joaquin Phoenix and -but of course- Leonardo DiCaprio.

Linda says, "No film has really been able to capture the energy and vitality of what it was like to live on the Left Bank then, to be young and ambitious and wildly sexual. The film won't look like anything seen previously. I'm working with Hybride, the SFX house that Robert Rodriguez uses to create the look for the movie." (Apparently, MAC Cosmetics liked the script concept so much they agreed to create special face and body makeup for "The Hive.")

Linda recently attended a screening of Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" and was impressed by the writer-director's modern twists on the tragic tale of France's doomed Queen. "I don't know that I'd use rock music, though that was a daring, brilliant gimmick, but like 'Marie Antoinette,' I certainly see 'The Hive' as a movie a young, modern audience could relate to. Those creative men and women of 1912 were the MTV generation of the early 20th century!"

Ms. Yellen hopes to have full cast and crew ready to go by the spring or summer of 2007". Source: Nypost.com

Water and snacks

"Reese Witherspoon spends time with her kids —daughter Ava, 7, and son Deacon, 3 1/2— while vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair earlier this week.

On-again off-again lover Jake Gyllenhaal was also spotted earlier this week at The Chilmark Store, where he stopped for snacks while vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard". Source: Just Jared.buzznet.com

Torsos, summer and heat

Jake Weird will be temporarily closed ON VACATION. I just need to go to the beach, the swimming pool or something, my fingers just slide off the keyboard. But, don't sweat it too much, I'll come back soon. Whilst enjoy the summer in good company.
See you, weirdos!

Double indie play

"Joseph Gordon-Levitt continues his indie streak, booking starring roles in back-to-back features.

First up for Gordon-Levitt is "Uncertainty," the latest film from David Siegel and Scott McGehee. The film is loosely based on a script by Siegel and McGehee, who also are producing, with dialogue to be developed in collaboration with the actors.

The story revolves around a young couple faced with having to make an important decision, and the film is split into two versions of the same Fourth of July in New York, presenting a new series of unexpected choices the characters make.
Siegel and McGehee wrote and directed "The Deep End" and co-directed "Bee Season" ["Bee Season" screenplay was written by Naomi Foner, Jake's mom, based on Myla Goldberg's novel].

Shooting is under way in New York.

Gordon-Levitt then will hop to Intermedia and GreeneStreet Films' "The Frog King," a coming-of-age dramedy that is due to enter production in the fall. Darren Star ("Sex and the City") will direct the film, which Bret Easton Ellis adapted from a novel by Adam Davies.

Gordon-Levitt will play an educated wannabe writer slaving away as a peon at a New York publishing house. The one bright spot in his life is his girlfriend, whom he loses and then has to win back.
Gordon-Levitt has been on a strong indie streak since wrappingthe sitcom "3rd Rock From the Sun," notching starring turns insuch films as "Mysterious Skin","Brick" and"The Lookout". He next stars opposite Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane in John Madden's "Killshot" as well as Kimberly Peirce's Iraq War drama "Stop Loss" for Paramount. He is repped by Gersh and Industry Entertainment Partners".
Source: Hollywoodreporter.com

"The Lookout" DVD release

AVC: "The character also feels this lingering shame about his responsibility in causing the accident.

JGL: That's true. And I think that Chris suffers from that more than he suffers from the brain injury. And that's something we can all identify with, whether you've been hit in the head or not. You know what it's like to be ashamed of yourself, to regret something. And those are powerful feelings, and they can tear your life apart. And I think that they are tearing Chris apart even more so than the scratches on his brain." Source: Avclub/content

"The Lookout" has a strangely purposeful way of tipping its narrative "surprises".
Pratt, for instance, takes a menial job swabbing floors as the lone overnight employee at a rural bank. This is a situation that an unscrupulous person could exploit, and when just such a shady character (Matthew Goode) befriends Pratt, "The Lookout" immediately tips us that he's up to no good.

Frank also lets us know, right away, that Pratt's gorgeous new girlfriend (Isla Fisher) is too good to be true.

This studied series of anticlimaxes (a variation of the techniquein "Zodiac") handled better may be Frank's way of saying the movie isn't really about twists and turns, but people.

But so was the livelier "Memento," since its final twist revealed the ghastly truth about its lead character, played with sardonic intelligence by Guy Pearce."
Source: Philly.com/dailynews

"Gordon-Levitt effortlessly burrows into the character's frazzled mental and emotional state. He makes Chris a sympathetic stand-in for anyone who has ever felt crippling self-pity over failing to achieve one's dreams.
Fisher plays Luvlee with a sweetness that nicely contrasts against the usual femme fatale archetype, while the most memorable supporting performance comes from Goode, oozing riveting menace and persuasive charm as the heavy". Source: Newyork.metromix.com

"Gary eventually clues Chris in on his plan to rob the bank after the bank receives an influx of cash from the winter harvest. Gary promises Chris a cut of the heist’s proceeds and a shot atnormalcy with Luvlee. Chris agrees to become the lookout for the heist. But Gary isn’t to be trusted, Chris begins to have second thoughts, Lewis suspects something is amiss, and the winter harvest money is due to arrive any day now.
From the emotionally and cognitively impaired hero haunted by his past, to the gang leader who induces the hero into breakingthe law, to a femme fatale who seduces the hero with the promise of intimacy, to the build up and execution of the heist, double-crosses, and voice over narration, it’s obvious we’re firmly in noir world". Source: Sfstation.com

"Frank wrote the screenplay for “The Lookout” almost 4 years ago, and it has long been rumored, like Lem Dobb’s still unproduced “Edward Ford”, to be one of the greatest unfilmed scripts on the studio shelves. David Fincher toyed with it a bit before chasing the “Zodiac” instead and left it for Frank to direct himself. Frank acquits himself very effectively in the director’s chair, but this isn’t so much a director’s picture as it is a true “auteur” film, as in “author”.

The film’s effectiveness is entirely within the pages of the script, and the talent of its fine cast. Like John Huston, who debuted with his own crime adaptation, “The Maltese Falcon”, Frank clearly sees writing and casting as the most important parts of making a successful film. Huston once remarked that 75% of a picture’s success could be attributed to good casting. If the material is any good, the director merely has to photograph it cleanly." Source: Beyondhollywood.com
"Between The Lookout and Brick, it's interesting how Gordon-Levitt's become a sort of post-modern noir hero. In Brick, he was the classic detective; in The Lookout, he's the classic sap." from Source: Cinematical.com/SXSW review.
"Is Joseph Gordon-Levitt the new king of neo-noir? Could be. [...] It’s an extension of - and, yes, improvement on -his stunning, multifaceted turn in “Brick” subtly layered and richly realized. New king of neo-noir? Undoubtedly, and after this performance, most deservedly." from Source: Efilmcritic.com

"In the old-school noir pictures that The Lookout nods to —such as "Black Angel" and "Somewhere in the Night" —the heroes needed to remember what they did to get to the end of their stories; here, Chris has to remember who he is. For real." from Source: Premiere.com/moviereviews

"Scott Frank's "The Lookout" makes atmospheric use of the wide spaces at its outskirts and surrounding farms to tell a compellingly neo-noir tale of an unusual recruit in a bank robbery. Film noir may have been born in an urban world (Los Angeles, perhaps, with a few childhood visits to San Francisco and New York) and defined by the look of a labyrinth of seedy bars, dark alleys, mansions in the hills, crowded lunch counters and broad sidewalks, but modern noir is just as likely to be found in Midwestern suburbs as in your pick of America's big, bad cities." from Source: http://blogs.indiewire.com

"I’ve been ripping through the pulp noir of Charlie Huston recently, so I slipped comfortably into "Get Shorty" screenwriter Scott Frank’s directorial debut -a dark neo-noir about ChrisPratt (Joseph Gordon-Levitt of last year’s criminally overlooked Brick), a high-school hockey standout whose future crashed into a stalled combine on Highway 24 along with his Mustang, girlfriend and two passengers - without hesitation. [...] Frank gets a lot of the little stuff right. He nails the tragic, stupid, teenage romanticism of Chris’ accident and the stiff shot of humor provided by the blind roommate (Jeff Daniels). The Lookout could have been a bit of a tougher talker. Also, stories like this -good guys pressed into morally questionable action by really bad guys don't usually end like this one does. A tougher Lookout could have scared two broken thumbs up out of me". -Drew Wheeler. Source: Flagpole.com/Arts

Jeffrey M. Anderson: "I was curious about the restaurant that Lewis wants to open with Chris, "Lew's Your Lunch." Does everybody have a secret dream of opening a restaurant?
Scott Frank: "Well, in the movie, it's such a ridiculous idea. It's so clearly a "Lewis" idea. It's another example of someone imposing their agenda on Chris. The only one who's being honest is Gary. He's telling the truth: you're not independent, you have no friends, you have no life, you have nothing. You think you're doing fine; you're not. Whereas Lewis, because Lewis doesn't want to be left alone, so "Let's open this restaurant together." He kind of imposes it on Chris. I wanted to make it a real Lewis thing". Source: Greencine.com/central

Andrew O'Hehir: "And it seems like you hit on the idea that one of the main things that manifests for Chris is that he gets angry when he's not able to do something the way that the so-called normal part of him would want to. Was that one of the key things for you?
JGL: It's true, there's two edges to an injury like this. There's the injury itself, which does change your brain, but then I think the even more severe and painful truth of the condition is that he remembers who he used to be and wishes so badly that he could be that and isn't. So it makes him insecure and it makes him feel bad about himself, and that's way more painful than not being able to have your brain work like it used to -- way more painful. I think that's something he has in common with everybody. Everybody's fears and insecurities, those are the real demons. The problem is when you're scared. The problem is when you don't love yourself. And Chris has a healthy portion of lack of self-love, and that's what's really holding him back, I think, even more than the brain injury". Source: Salon.com

MY LAST VIDEOCLIP OF "THE LOOKOUT" _________________