Jake Gyllenhaal at WonderCon 2010, on 3rd April in San Francisco, CA.Q: Your attachment to the property obviously compelled you to not simply rehash the story of the game. What changed and what stayed the same when doing the movie version?
Jordan Mechner: The idea of a dagger that could turn back time was of course at the heart of both the game and the movie. That started as a gameplay idea. We thought it would be cool for the player to save himself and turn back time rather than having to die and restart from a checkpoint. The story the Sands of Time and the Dagger of Time was the story I made to justify that gameplay idea. Of course with the movie, it begins with that story.
Jordan Mechner: I was just out of college and home for the summer. With my love of movies and my Apple II, I had my brother, who was in high school at the time, run, jump and do all the movies on the high school parking lot. That became the basis for the animation. To go from that to Jake (Gyllenhaal) doing all the stunt work trained by the best stunt people in the world, it's quite a journey. Source: www.examiner.com
Quint: I have to start off by saying that I loved BROTHERS. I think that was a criminally overlooked movie. You, Natalie [Portman] and Tobey [Maguire] knocked that out of the park.Jake Gyllenhaal: Thank you very much.
Quint: I was very shocked that it got ignored during the awards season.
Jake Gyllenhaal: Really?
Quint: Yeah.
Jake Gyllenhaal: You know, I think those things take on lives of their own, it’s like sometimes things catch and sometimes things don’t, but it doesn’t make it any more or less of a movie, I guess. I’m really proud of that movie as a marker of sort of a new beginning in understanding of acting for me, so thank you. That means a lot.
Quint: On the panel, you called back to a childhood love of INDIANA JONES and those kinds of movies, so I guess if you could elaborate a little bit on that..jpg)
Jake Gyllenhaal: Yeah, it was that. To me the fun thing about it is… I think it is incredibly entertaining, it’s huge and it’s for everyone. (laughs) I had great fun making the movie. I think it does show in there and yeah, that’s what it is. You did most of the talking yourself, so you just…
Roland Emmerich and Jake Gyllenhaal on the set of The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - Eye of the StormQuint: And you have worked with people like Roland Emmerich before who are also skilled at these kinds of giant disastersploitation, just these super fun movies, but I’ve noticed through a lot of studio pictures, you just end up with this kind of homogenized “fun,” so it’s very safe fun, but what I really kind of connected with on the PRINCE OF PERSIA stuff that, to be completely honest, I didn’t know if it was going to be there until I saw the footage was that it just didn’t seem to have that “Directed by studio mentality” feel. I don’t know if that makes any sense…
Jake Gyllenhaal: Yeah, to me I feel like what was really nice about working with Disney, and also working with Jerry, was that Mike [Newell] and I… You never had this feeling of “No, you can’t do… NO!” and you were constantly trying things out. When we were on second unit, I would literally just try something out and I would say probably three quarters of the time it was not successful, but it’s unique because you can take those risks you know?
Quint: Yeah and something that you mentioned earlier, which I’d like to touch on is you said that BROTHERS was kind of a check point for you where you started looking at the craft differently. I know PRINCE OF PERSIA is obviously a radically different movie, it’s a very big movie and there are probably much broader strokes, I would imagine, but did you find stuff that you learned there, you were able to carry over with you?
Quint: Well if I’ve got one more question, I have to talk about Duncan.Jake Gyllenhaal: Yes.
Quint: So, how far along are you in the movie?
Jake Gyllenhaal: We are almost done.
Quint: Really? Are you shooting in London?
Jake Gyllenhaal: No, we are shooting in Montreal. We are shooting the coolest shit right now, man. I can’t even tell you.
Quint: I’ve got to bug him “Hey, the studio might not want it, but I want to come up!”
Jake Gyllenhaal: I’m telling you man, he is really quite something. His mind… He comes from quite a pedigree, just artistically, but on his own I believe he is the next generation. He is blowing my mind on a daily basis.Quint: What’s interesting with him is he is kind of like the quiet Quentin Tarantino, where it’s like he has such amazing film knowledge. Like when I went to MOON he was wearing the most badass CLOCKWORK ORANGE t-shirt I’ve ever seen. I’m like, “Wow, I know I like you already.”
Jake Gyllenhaal: He has collector’s edition t-shirts on like every day and people come up and they are like “Dude, where’d you get that shirt?” I’m “It’s just a shirt, I have no idea.” [Laughs]
Duncan Jones poses with the Orange Birtish Academy Film award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for the film Moon, on February 21, 2010 in LondonJake Gyllenhaal: To me, working with him… It’s surprising, his instinct, his sense of collaboration, but at the same time truly being an auteur… I don’t know man, it’s nice, because I feel like I’ve talked to a lot of journalists who have really responded to his movie and know that and I knew that when I saw it and I think people… Everyone I’ve been like “Have you seen MOON?” They’re always like “Everyone says it’s so good, I need to see it.” He’s the real deal man. Anyone who has seen it knows that and this… you are really going to like it! Source: www.aintitcool.com
