David O' Russell quits "Nailed", Catherine Keener keeps her indie cred

Jake Gyllenhaal in Details Magazine photoshoot [HQ]
Jessica Biel in Glamour UK August 2010

"Add another nail in the coffin of the long-delayed political satire/romantic comedy "Nailed", starring Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal, which THR has learned exclusively will be finished without the involvement of writer-director David O. Russell.
Russell has withdrawn from the $26 million production after one-on-one negotiations with financier Ronald Tutor, who controls rights to the movie with Pangea Media Group CEO David Bergstein, broke down.
David O. Russell The movie is about a small-town waitress who is shot in the head by a nail gun and later goes to Washington to fight for better health care; there, she meets a clueless congressman, and a romance develops.

"This has been a painful process for me," Russell told THR on Tuesday. "The multiple production delays and stoppages, which were caused by David Bergstein and preceded Ron Tutor's direct involvement with me, have now spanned two years, and the circumstances under which the film would now be completed are much different on several fundamental levels than when we embarked several years ago. I, unfortunately, am no longer involved in the project and cannot call it 'my' film. I wish Ron Tutor well." Source: www.hollywoodreporter.com

Jake Gyllenhaal and Catherine Keener in Lovely & Amazing (2001)

"Keener has played this type of part perhaps too often.
Still of Ben Stiller and Catherine Keener in Your Friends & Neighbors (1998)

In the 4 films (“Walking And Talking”, “Lovely And Amazing”, “Friends With Money” and “Please Give”) she’s made with Nicole Holofcener, she’s perfected the role of a New York intellectual suffering with liberal guilt and seething hostility. .
Steve Carrell and Catherine Keener in The 40 Year-Old Virgin (2005)

Initially her role as Steve Carrell’s love interest in the uber commercial hit “The 40 Year Old Virgin” appeared to be severe miscasting. Her style seemed better suited to the edgier indie worlds of Holofcenter, Steven Soderbergh, or, of course, Charlie Kaufman, than the raunchy boys club milieu of Judd Apatow, yet it was refreshing to see her having fun in a less stressed comic identity.
Keener’s Oscar nominated role as Harper Lee in “Capote” (2005) was also a bit of a change from her patented snarky persona. Another out of character part came in a little seen TV movie produced by Showtime based on a true story - “An American Crime”.Ellen Page and Catherine Keener in "An American Crime" (2007)

Although she played yet another divorcée, Keener’s acclaimed performance as Gertrude Baniszewski, a Indiana woman who tortured and murdered a teenage girl, was definitely a different stroke for the active actress.
So Keener keeps her indie cred although she often pops up in mainstream movies usually playing a hip single mother like she did in “Percy Jackson” and “Wild Things”. She’s got a healthy crop of films coming up including David O. Russell’s political romantic comedy “Nailed” in which she plays the fictitious Rep. Pam Hendrickson. It looks to be another welcome change of pace. Keener may not be an A-list star, but she’s a familiar face and name to movie lovers no matter the genre or budget of her films.
For nearly a decade she’s replaced Parker Posey as the queen of independent film, one who can survive the crossover and come back again to her home turf. As her reign continues here’s hoping she’ll aspire to do more with her crown". Source: www.examiner.com

Leonardo DiCaprio at the "Inception" premiere

Leonardo DiCaprio with Marion Cotillard and Christopher Nolan attending "Inception" premiere in Paris.


Leonardo DiCaprio at the premiere of "Inception."

Jake Gyllenhaal joins Stand Up to Cancer telethon

Jake Gyllenhaal in 'Stand Up To Cancer' Public Service Announcement

"Fox and Jake Gyllenhaal are among the latest to join the upcoming TV fundraiser Stand Up to Cancer.

On Tuesday, Gyllenhaal will appear in a "Stand Up to Cancer" PSA that is scheduled to premiere during the Major League Baseball's All-Star Game on Fox, airing at 8/7c.

CBS Evening News' Katie Couric, NBC Nightly News' Brian Williams and Diane Sawyer of ABC's World News will host Stand Up to Cancer, which will be overseen by producer and cancer survivor Laura Ziskin (Spider-Man).

Major League Baseball and Jake Gyllenhaal Stand up to Cancer. Clip courtesy of Entertainment Tonight and SU2C: http://www.standup2cancer.org/


Jake Gyllenhaal and director Scott Cooper talk about their connection to cancer and why they teamed up.

Ziskin also produced the 2008 telethon, which raised more than $100 million. More than $83 million has since been committed to five "dream teams" of researchers and to 13 scientists working against cancer, the Stand Up to Cancer project said.

"Cancer is a crisis and we want to convey that ALL Americans can play a role in helping the scientists who are working to end it," she said in a statement. "We're delighted that the entertainment community is banding together in such a big way to help us get that word out." Source: www.tvguide.com

R.I.P. Harvey Pekar ("American Splendor"'s hero)
"Harvey Pekar's life was not an open book. It was an open comic book.
Pekar chronicled his life and times in the acclaimed autobiographical comic book series, "American Splendor", portraying himself as a rumpled, depressed, obsessive-compulsive "flunky file clerk" engaged in a constant battle with loneliness and anxiety.Pekar, 70, was found dead shortly before 1 a.m. Monday by his wife, Joyce Brabner, in their Cleveland Heights home, said Powell Caesar, spokesman for Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death.
Pekar and Brabner wrote "Our Cancer Year", a book-length comic, after Pekar was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer in 1990 and underwent a grueling treatment. He was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, and also suffered high blood pressure, asthma and clinical depression, which fueled his art but often made his life painful."American Splendor" carried the subtitle, "From Off the Streets of Cleveland," and just like Superman, the other comic-book hero born in Cleveland, Pekar wore something of a disguise. He never stepped into a phone booth to change, but underneath his persona of aggravated, disaffected file clerk, he was an erudite book and jazz critic, and a writer of short stories that many observers compared to Chekhov, despite their comic-book form.
Hope Davis and Paul Giammatti in "American Splendor" (2003)

Unlike the superheroes who ordinarily inhabit the pages of comic books, Pekar could neither leap tall buildings in a single bound, nor move faster than a speeding bullet. Yet his comics suggested a different sort of heroism: The working-class, everyman heroics of simply making it through another day, with soul -- if not dignity -- intact". Source: blog.cleveland.com

Interview with the cast of Twilight: Eclipse - Serenading Kristen Stewart

Interview with the cast of Twilight: Eclipse! - Part 3
Singapore Idol Sezairi met the cast of Twilight: Eclipse and serenaded to Kristen Stewart!!!

Fascinated by the phenomenon of amoral climbers

Sight-Seeing of Jake Gyllenhaal with Reese Witherspoon in Rome on 20th October 2007 - New additions from Iheartjakemedia.com

"For Jim McAllister, the Tracy Flicks have to be stopped before they do damage to themselves and others. She is always perfectly dressed and groomed, and is usually able to conceal her hot temper behind a facade of maddening cheerfulness. But she is ruthless. She reminds me of a saying attributed to David Merrick: "It is not enough for me to win. My enemies must lose." The story, based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, shows McAllister as a dedicated teacher who is simply steamrollered by Tracy Flick. Whatever else, he is fascinated by the phenomenon of Tracy Flick. We're inevitably reminded of Sammy Glick, the hero of Budd Schulberg's Hollywood classic What Makes Sammy Run? , who had his eye on the prize and his feet on the shoulders of the little people he climbed over on his way to the top". Source: rogerebert.suntimes.com

"It is the story of Sammy Glick, the man with a positive genius for being a heel, who runs through New York’s East Side, through newspaper ranks and finally through Hollywood, leaving in his wake the wrecked careers of his associates; for this is his tragedy and his chief characteristic—his congenital incapacity for friendship.
Lee Remick, Elia Kazan, Carroll Baker, Budd Schulberg and Eva Marie Saint.

An older and more experienced novelist might have tempered his story and, in so doing, destroyed one of its outstanding qualities. Compromise would mar the portrait of Sammy Glick. Schulberg has etched it in pure vitriol, and dissected his victim with a precision that is almost frightening". Source: search.barnesandnoble.com

"Stiller spent years working with "Permanent Midnight" writer Jerry Stahl on an update of a Schulberg script, first at Warners -- which had the rights to the book -- and later at DreamWorks (when DW negotiated a first-look deal with Stiller's production company, it paid Warners $2.6 million just for the rights to "Sammy").
"Stiller and Stahl sat down and wrote an account -- with the two men essentially interviewing themselves -- of what happened, or more accurately, didn't happen to the project. It is refreshingly self-deprecating, opening with this zinger: "I guess you could say that our relationship with Budd Schulberg was typical Hollywood: we met him, we liked each other and in the end, we kind of broke his heart.

Ben Stiller: I read the book and loved it. Ben Stiller playing Jerry Stahl in "Permanent Midnight" (1998)

The financing for the movie I was waiting to play Jerry Stahl in -- "Permanent Midnight" -- was taking a while to come through (if ever, according to my agent/jailer), so I asked Jerry if he wanted to work on re-writing Budd’s script with me in the meantime. Why did I ask Jerry? I knew he was a good writer and I was scared out of my mind to try to do it alone." Source: latimesblogs.latimes.com

Twilight: Eclipse Clip - Charlie and Bella Talk

In THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger as Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between Edward and Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella is confronted with the most important decision of her life.

Film Composer Ryan Collier - showreel for "Jarhead"

Film Composer showreel by Ryan Collier. Movie - Jarhead. from Ryan Collier on Vimeo.

Music and editing by film composer Ryan Collier Let me first stress that I had in no way, anything to do with the actual films production. This is just an easy way to show film makers what I can add to a movie. The piece is largely electronic in style with orchestral textures. It relies on using the beat as the theme for the piece to create tension and suspense. Hope you enjoy it. Also check out the movie, it is fantastic. ryancollier.co.uk