Kevin Costner in TIN CUP is available on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering information can be found HERE
An unreachable shot to the green. A hopeless romance. Driving-range pro Roy McAvoy can’t resist an impossible challenge. Each is what he calls a defining moment. You define it. Or it defines you.
With lady-killer charm and a game that can make par with garden tools, Kevin Costner rejoins Bull Durham filmmaker Ron Shelton for another funny tale of the games people play. For Costner’s Roy, golf is a head — and heart — game. On both counts, that’s where shrink Molly Griswold (Rene Russo) comes in. She’s big-city, Roy’s small-time, and he believes only the grandest of gestures can lure her away from a slick touring pro (Don Johnson) and earn her love. So Roy and his dutiful caddy (Cheech Marin) set out to do the impossible: win the US Open. With laughs, clever battle-of-the-sexes banter and a handy way with a 7-iron, Tin Cup winningly defines the moment and contemporary romantic comedy.
Writer/Director Ron Shelton (Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump) continues his winning streak of remarkable sports romances with this mid-90s fable of Roy MacAvoy (Kevin Costner), the greatest golf pro to never hit the big time. Zen master of the swing and the putt, Roy is content with his lot in life as a golf instructor at a driving range in the tiny West Texas town of Salome when Dr. Molly Griswold (Rene Russo) signs up for lessons and turns his life upside down. The quixotic Roy decides the only way to prove his worthiness to Molly – and steal her from her PGA star fiancé David Simms (Don Johnson) – is to win the US Open. Good thing he has best friend and brilliant caddie Romeo Posar (Cheech Marin) along to play Sancho Panza. Long requested, this fan favorite sports comedy arrives with all its wisdom and charm looking like a million-dollar trophy on 1080p HD. Theatrical Trailer (HD). 16×9 Widescreen
Academy Award winners Robert De Niro (“Raging Bull,” “Silver Linings Playbook”) and Anne Hathaway (“Les Misérables,” “The Devil Wears Prada”) star together in Warner Bros. Pictures’ THE INTERN.
Oscar-nominated and award-winning filmmaker Nancy Meyers (“It’s Complicated,” “Private Benjamin”) is directing the dramatic comedy from her own screenplay.
In THE INTERN, De Niro stars as Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower who has discovered that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Hathaway).
The film’s multi-generational cast also features Rene Russo (“Thor”), Anders Holm (“Workaholics”), Andrew Rannells (“Girls”), Adam Devine (“Pitch Perfect”), Celia Weston (“No Reservations”), Nat Wolff (“The Fault in Our Stars”), Linda Lavin (“Wanderlust”), Zack Pearlman (“The Inbetweeners”), newcomer Jason Orley, and Christina Scherer (“Living with Uncle Charlie”).
THE INTERN opens Friday, September 25th.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win a pass (Good for 2) to the advance screening of THE INTERN on Monday, September 21st at 7PM in the St. Louis area.
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Answer the following:
Nancy Meyers has directed several big-screen successes which led to one Oscar nominated performance. Name the actress and the film.
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The film has been rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and brief strong language.
From writer/director Nancy Meyers (IT’S COMPLICATED, SOMETHING’S GOTTA GIVE), watch the new trailer for THE INTERN starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.
De Niro stars as Ben Whittaker, a 70-year-old widower who has discovered that retirement isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Seizing an opportunity to get back in the game, he becomes a senior intern at an online fashion site, founded and run by Jules Ostin (Hathaway).
The film’s cast also features Rene Russo (“Thor”), Anders Holm (“Workaholics”), Andrew Rannells (“Girls”), Adam Devine (“Pitch Perfect”), Celia Weston (“No Reservations”), Nat Wolff (“The Fault in Our Stars”), Linda Lavin (“Wanderlust”), Zack Pearlman (“The Inbetweeners”), newcomer Jason Orley, and Christina Scherer (“Living with Uncle Charlie”).
Meyers also produced the film, with Suzanne Farwell. Celia Costas served as executive producer.
Meyers’ behind-the-scenes creative team is headed by Oscar-nominated director of photography Stephen Goldblatt (“The Prince of Tides,” “The Help”), Oscar-nominated production designer Kristi Zea (“Revolutionary Road,” “GoodFellas,” “Tower Heist”), Oscar-nominated film editor Robert Leighton (“A Few Good Men,” “When Harry Met Sally”) and costume designer Jacqueline Demeterio (“The Other Woman,” “The Big C”). The music is by Theodore Shapiro (“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty,” “The Devil Wears Prada”).
Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film on September 25, 2015.
His name may be Lou Bloom but a more accurate name for Jake Gyllenhaal’s character would be the title of Dan Gilroy’s debut feature film. Lou is a creature of the night – like a wolf scrounging for scraps in order to survive another day. When Lou discovers the seedy world of late-night accident and crime-reporting he finally feels his skills are being better utilized. By imitating fellow reporter Joe (Bill Paxton) and following the guidance of his new boss Nina (Rene Russo), Lou’s “business” begins to take-off. Soon he is hiring an assistant (Riz Ahmed) for his late night reporting and rising to the top above his competition. It isn’t until a deadly murder that he catches on tape that places his life and everyone around him in jeopardy.
With a shit-eating grin, greasy hair, and bulging eyes that showcase the character’s eagerness for fame and fortune, Gyllenhaal feels like the car accidents his character goes to examine – he’s a complete wreck but you don’t want to look away. It’s a role that demands attention and Gyllenhaal gives his all and then some into the role (apparently he needed stitches after a run-in with a bathroom mirror in one scene). Even through all of the animal like comparisons one can make to his character, there’s still a level of intelligence that is relayed through several thought-provoking monologues. Some of these speeches feel like you’re watching an infomercial as Lou sells himself as a hard worker and a businessman. In a filmic career filled with ups and downs, Gyllenhaal delivers his finest and most complex performance to date.
Rene Russo is in top form as well playing a news producer who is trying to maintain ratings amid stiff competition. She serves as a reflection to Lou’s character but in a way that’s somewhat disguised due to her more conventional status in society. They both pine for money even at the cost of sacrificing their moral code – which as the film progresses becomes even harder to gauge. Russo plays the part with intimidating gravitas. Her scenes where she plays opposite Gyllenhaal ignite the screen with even more sparks and fire than some of the on-screen car crashes. One scene in particular where the two “working professionals” go on a date to a Mexican restaurant feels ever the power struggle as each side tries to control the situation, leaving the audience to feel the tension while being in awe of the deft wordplay. Thankfully both actors are up to the challenge of creating characters that the audience can love to hate.
This is also due to a tight script by Dan Gilroy. After sharpening his teeth by working on more Hollywood fare like REAL STEEL and THE BOURNE LEGACY, Gilroy finally shows he can write something with bite. NIGHTCRAWLER imparts a healthy amount of social commentary into what is essentially a dark character study on the surface. It is through Lou’s journey into the depths of the crime world that Gilroy is able to speak about the dog-eat-dog world of business and the political slant of the media. Lou is constantly racing against the clock to be the first one on the crime scene so to beat out the other reporters. Gilroy uses this as a metaphor for the current business world and the struggle to get your foot in the door that so many young people face on an everyday basis. Once Lou finally gets his foot in the door the script unveils some of the dark secrets behind the “real stories” we watch every night on our televisions. Gilroy does have a tendency to shine an overly negative light on these players in order to get his point across, which some might see as a little too one-sided
Aside from the hard-hitting themes at times, the other element that makes its presence far too known is James Newton Howard’s score. At times it utilizes tribal like drums to great effect, other times there’s violins or electronic sounds, while other times the score plays like a melodic almost contradictory joy to the macabre proceedings. Sadly, Howard’s score is one of the most distracting scores I have ever heard! There are times in the second half where it sets the tone of the film perfectly, but the first half is littered with a number of scenes where Howard tries out different styles with obnoxious results.
NIGHTCRAWLER reveals a world where everyone is either the hunter or the prey. It shows us that we are all animals at heart looking to not just better ourselves, but will ultimately do anything to get ahead of the pack. Gilroy stages his crime drama in a way that recalls 70’s films like NETWORK and THE CHINA SYNDROME with a dash of BLOW-UP. The film is unintentionally broken into two parts (Gilroy admitted to me in an interview that it was not necessarily written this way) by a gruesome event that happens halfway through the film that triggers a second half that ramps up the excitement. If the first hour or so shows how well Gilroy can handle dialogue, it’s the last 30 minutes that shows how confident he is in the directing seat. Intense, nail biting, and shocking, NIGHTCRAWLER delivers an explosive finale that will leave you shaken. Aside from a misguided score, NIGHTCRAWLER proves Gilroy is more than just a writer. In fact, he’s a director that isn’t afraid to venture into the dark of the night.
Overall score: 4 out of 5
NIGHTCRAWLER opens in theaters everywhere on October 31
While I was covering Fantastic Fest in Austin, I was able to sit down with the writer and director of NIGHTCRAWLER, Dan Gilroy. Even though he worked on films like REAL STEEL, THE FALL, and THE BOURNE LEGACY, this is his directorial debut. You can read my full review of the film HERE. Below you can find my interview with Dan Gilroy where he goes into how he views LA, what some of the important themes in the movie are, and what he thinks of sex in movies.
The idea of entrepreneurship and “bad business” is a central theme in NIGHTCRAWLER. Do you see the film as a movie with a message and if so did the message change or evolve as you developed the script?
I wrote the film to be engaging and entertaining but it does have a theme and it does have messages. I think, in a meta sense, the largest theme is that it could be seen as an indictment of capitalism but I say that knowing that there isn’t another system that I’m aware of that works better than capitalism. But I believe no systems work in a vacuum and capitalism has transformed like all systems. I think we have reached a place where it’s become “dream capitalism.” I think Lou (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a young man who has been abandoned into a world built upon transactions, where everything is dependant on the bottom line. Apart from the fact that he exceeds at what he does. The fact that he does succeed proves the horror of the world that he lives in. The world has created this character and rewards this character, and when the world is reduced to just transactions than there really isn’t much of a place for the human spirit anymore. Respect for people has gone. Some of that hopefully comes through when you have a film that has a lot of darkness and kinetic violent energy to it. That was one of the largest themes.
The character of Lou sprung from me thinking about 10 of millions young people around the world who are faced with very bleak career prospects because of the global economy. I come from a different generation. When I grew up, steady work and health insurance was commonplace. I’m very aware that people now are faced with job situations that feel very insecure. I took the initial concept of the character as someone looking for work and was desperate for a job. So again, it goes back to the economics of the world. In fact, structurally, every scene in the film is a transaction. Something is being negotiated in every scene of the film.
It feels at times like he’s hosting an infomercial because he’s selling himself as a product.
He’s selling himself as a product and he’s driven like a shark to succeed. He’s an uber-capitalist. Again, I don’t necessarily see this as an indictment of capitalism. We were trying in every way to present something that was objectively true. Whether it was the larger landscape that Lou is moving through or even the landscape of the local television news, you can also look at that as an indictment. But we did a tremendous amount of research and we never tried cinematically to present something with any moral judgment. We just wanted to objectively present it. Jake and I and the rest of the crew never wanted to give answers, we just wanted to raise questions. By the end of the film I think you are asking even more questions about the character of Lou than when the film began. We don’t really give answers like you typically see in films: this is the character’s backstory, this is what he is thinking, and in the end this is how you should be feeling about the character. I think we broke a lot of narrative rules in that way.
I was curious because early on in the film, you setup the scene between Lou and a security guard where he steals the guard’s watch. The image of the watch is shown several times throughout the movie. It becomes a symbol for where Lou got started. The other thing that is shown a lot is Lou’s sunglasses. He especially wears them a lot during the day. I didn’t know if the sunglasses were meant to be the same sort of object as the watch, where he might have stole them from someone before the film starts – especially since they are nicer sunglasses.
The watch is interesting because the character just acquires things. Sort of like a bird. Crows go around and take shiny objects and when you go into their nests there’s this collection of shiny little things. We looked at the watch as just a shiny object that caught his eye like he was a child. So we saw the watch as something very particular. The glasses were Jake’s idea. Just like losing the weight and the longer hair, one day he came to me and said, “I’m thinking about wearing sunglasses.” I liked the idea because we always looked at him like a nocturnal animal. He doesn’t like daylight. Like he’s Dracula. We liked it for that reason, but if someone read into that differently that’s great.
There has been several films that have spotlighted LA at night that the list can go on and on. Was there something in particular that you wanted to do with NIGHTCRAWLER to distinguish it from those other films?
Very much so. I moved to LA from New York and I find LA to be a physically beautiful place. You have the desert air. You have the mountains with snow on them. The ocean is a really bright blue. You come up to LA from the valley and you can see for miles. I don’t often feel it is represented as beautiful. Cinematically it is often shown as cement, freeways, and downtown. Robert Elswit, our DP, also lives in LA. Robert and I both wanted to show Los Angeles as a physical beauty. I say that even though we often show it at night where it’s dark, and I know that it often doesn’t look like we are presenting LA at night. But I feel like the LA at night we showed you can see far. We had a lot of deep focus and wide angles. We tried to present the landscape like a wildlife documentary. These wildlife documentaries are always so beautiful. So we wanted to present LA in a beautiful while adding an element to Lou’s hunting spirit. I see Los Angeles as a place of survival. You’re on your own in a lot of ways. It’s a little bit like a wilderness.
I’ve been to LA a few times and it always feels so spread out in person. In the film, you never see Lou drive for hours. You always show Lou drive around in small neighborhoods or side streets. The world of LA doesn’t seem as massive. It feels rather compact.
We avoided freeways for the most part. We never shot downtown. We were always looking for streets that had bends or curves. Robert and I talked about how if we were in the car on a straightway you would see what’s in front of you and it wouldn’t be as suspenseful. If you were going around a curve we thought you would be curious what was around the corner. We shot a lot around Mulholland Dr. We shot around curves. Going down Laurel Canyon. Always giving you the sense of what’s around the next curve. That was a conscience choice cinematically. We also looked for locations that made you go up or down. In movies you’re always on a freeway. We wanted to avoid that.
The film feels like a two-part story. The first half is Lou learning about this world and then the film has an almost second act change when he enters the house of the crime-scene. Did you imagine it as a two-part story?
I didn’t write as a two-part story but I do see it as a success story. A lot of success stories have a moment where the character has a transformative moment where the man or woman suddenly realizes something, and then they suddenly take off and fly. The transformation moment in NIGHTCRAWLER is a very dark moment where in most films that moment is light and is a celebration of the human spirit. We’re the opposite. I never wrote it as a two-part structure but I did know that the character was going to find his dark wings and fly.
One of the story elements that you were very careful to show on screen is the relationship between Jake Gyllenhaal’s character and Rene Russo’s. Rene Russo is so good in the film and the scenes between the two of them are all fantastic. It’s interesting that you allude to a sexual side to their relationship but you don’t explicitly show it. Can you talk about the restraint of not showing that fully?
It’s an unusual relationship because obviously there’s a large age difference. It’s not uncommon to see the reverse where the man is older and the woman is younger. When I wrote the script we had early financiers that insisted I shoot a sex scene between them. And I said “no.” I insisted that there was nothing that I can show you that is more interesting than what you are imagining. Because it’s such an unusual relationship and Lou is so aggressive and she is aggressive in her own way and yet still passive that whatever you can imagine is far more interesting than anything we could show. Plus, to be honest, I find watching sex scenes in films boring. It’s interesting in real life. But I find it boring. I was not inclined to show anything.
I think also showing them in the softness of the bedroom it would make these two dynamic individuals appear weaker.
I think audiences are much more savvy than studios give them credit for. Studios want to show too much and explain everything. I think audiences are dying. Engage them and let their own imaginations kick in. Like for instance, we don’t tell where Lou is from. We don’t give any backstory. We imply he’s abused and abandoned, but at the end of the day I think audiences need to come up with their own story. The film should engage them to have a dialogue with the movie.
You learn about Lou through his actions. Not through a huge narrative dump.
Exactly. Don’t explain everything. Unfortunately when you work in the studio system you don’t have that opportunity. They want you to explain everything. They insist that you do. So for me, this is like a break from the factory.
Everyone is struggling to survive in this film. Gyllenhaal, Russo, Bill Paxton, Riz Ahmed as Rick.
That’s the way I see the world right now. This is a personal film for me. I see the world as a very limited opportunity, limited resource place. Maybe people don’t see it as so bleak or hard as I see it as. It just feels that way to me. I feel the people that are younger are bearing the brunt of it rather than people that are older. The thing is that when you are younger you are trying to make a mark and there’s an added imperative to push yourself. To justify your existence and so that people think of you a certain way. There’s an added pressure so you may not see the moral line that you might have otherwise seen under different circumstances. That’s why I wrote the film.
I want to thank Dan Gilroy for sitting down and talking with me about his exciting new film, and also for the cool poster (that was exclusive to Fantastic Fest) that he signed for me that you can see below.
NIGHTCRAWLER is out in theaters this Friday, October 31.
Open Road Films latest release NIGHTCRAWLER is already getting a lot of attention for the amazing performance given by leading man Jake Gyllenhaal… and the film doesn’t open until next Friday!
Read Michael Haffner’s Fantastic Fest review HERE.
Last week WAMG sat down with Gyllenhaal (in a small roundtable) to discuss the film. Check it out below.
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
One of the good things she was just saying about you is that you would make a great director. Do you have any ambitions do to that, at some point?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Well, my father’s a director. My mother’s a director, too. I know from a certain amount of experience, from watching a lot of people do it, who are extraordinary at it, because I’ve had the opportunity to work with people who are really good at it, that it would be presumptious of me to say that I would be good at it. At a time when I am looking to be presumptious, then maybe, yeah. I don’t know if that’s now. But I would like to try my hand at it, at some time.
I was going to ask you, when it came together to piecing together Lewis, did you do some research in the way motivational speakers talk and position themselves? Because I saw some of the hand movements that you were doing for your character.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Yeah, well, the hand gesturing, all that weird gesticulation… It was a bit of… You’ve met Dan Gilroy? And I talked a lot about there’s somebody who I based a lot of the character on, who used his hands a lot. But Dan, when he talks, he stands really straight, and he’s very thin. There’s something about him, he uses his hands a lot. So no, I didn’t study anybody who does self-help. The words kind of guided me there. Because there’s these strange punctuations, about it, and I kind of followed to a t the punctuation. I did not veer off one word, or one period, or any commas, throughout the whole thing. I think, in that way, it needed me to be very specific. So if there was a period, I would make sure to say a period. Sometimes my hands did it for me.
What about that movement that you would do with your hair? I noticed that was a kind of transformative movement. Is that something you decided, reading the script, or is that something you decided, “I like that!”.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : That just happened one day. There was one point when I had the idea with Dan. There was some point where I thought, “What if, when Luke is headed into filming, that his hair gets in his way?” Because my hair was pretty long at the time. And there was a moment in the movie, when the hair was all in my face, and I’m filming, and I just thought, so often, when you’re driving, it’s sort of more dangerous when you’re driving with your knee. So there were a lot of inspirations that were coming from all over the place, from this movie. So I said to Dan, “Wouldn’t it be great when I was talking to Rick in the car, while I’m giving him speeches, that as I’m talking, as we all do, when you’ve lived in L.A., or driven a car in L.A., I’ll drive with my knee while I’m putting my hair up.” Yeah, exactly! There’s something about it, where I thought he was a ninja, that he thought that he was a ninja. It’s like, before he did anything, where he stole that bike, he’s a ninja! He went in, and was like, “Let’s go!” That just came out. Dan loved it.
In building this character, at times it seemed like this is Norman Bates, who’s gone into TV movies. Is he a sociopath? Is that why, with this character, do you think there was that, to him?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : My belief is, in using that word, I think it takes the onus off of us, in the creation of Lou. He’s our creation. Without our need for information, without our need for information of all sorts, in a world where unimportant information is now important, and important information is now unimportant, and it all exists on the same plane, we just need to feed and consume, in that way. That people like Lou can thrive. He’s a product of a generation where jobs are, I wouldn’t necessarily say, now, as scarce as they have been, but definitely scarce, and they are transforming the idea of what someone does, as so different. The other day, I wrote an article and I post, it’s like, there’s a job that is changing the idea of a whole generation, who are coming into the world going, “What is a job? What do I do? How do I get a job?” And Lou is a product of that. The choices he makes; he’s kind of a walking metaphor, that’s how I look at it. So I wouldn’t say, as soon as you say, “Oh, he’s a sociopath.” It just sort of makes it go, “Oh, he’s over there. Don’t worry. We don’t have to deal with it.” In a way, I think he’s a product of… he does what he does. He is enabled by Nina, Renee’s character. He’s enabled by the guys at the head of the station, and they are enabled by us. There’s a world where we maybe could live, ideally, where someone who wouldn’t end up being the head of a huge major network. But I feel like, in the world that we live in now, he probably would.
Following up with questions, this movie is kind of about two people going to the TV, and what they’re doing. How do you see the journalism, and the entertainment, as kind of so close, and journalism has changed. The journalism…
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : There’s sort of part of the same answer that I would give, the same thing that I just said. I think the difference between what Lou does, he’s dealing with life and death. Though I think that there is a sense of no one taking responsibility. We’re all just in it. We’re all just needing information, and getting it. I think whatever shocks us is what we’re bound to go towards, even if we don’t want to. We’re still terrified by it, and interested. It’s the same idea as moving past an accident.
It’s kind of understandable. The teams he’s following, and the people…
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : I think that idea is very different. When you’re talking about celebrity culture, you’re dealing with life and death. When you’re following somebody who’s going about living their life, it’s not comparable.
Can you talk a little bit about working with Rene? As a person, and as an actress, and as your partner in this? And her touching your knee?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Oh yeah, she did do that in one scene. Well, in the restaurant scene, that’s actually a perfect example. Her husband, Dan, gave her very little to survive with in that scene. I would say that I was given, Lou was given a figurative 50 calibre machine gun, with his words, and she’s given a spoon. So I walked into that scene, expecting to just win, just because I’d been given all those words. And eventually he does win that scene. But Renee came in, and made it a struggle for me, in that, even with close to nothing to defend with, she was like a fierce competitor. The choices that she was making, moment to moment, even when she touched my leg, she must have said that to you, that was a choice she was doing, under the table to me, that no one would see, to mess with me. Because she knew that she needed to try and win something. As actor to actor. And I love it! There’s nothing I love more than another actor who is going to sideswipe me, sweep my leg, because I mean, it’s fun! She does it in so much fun, so much play, it’s not like dangerous. It’s so playful. When we rehearsed, with her and Dan; they’re so loving, the two of them, just so positive and loving. I would come and rehearse and do a speech with her, a scene, and she’d be like, “Oh my God, you’re just so great!” And then I’d be like, “Can we just do the scene?” And she’d be like, “Nope, I mean, Danny, isn’t he just so wonderful?” I’d just be like, and he would go, “I know, I told you! I told you!” Guys, we’re doing a scene! It was like that with them, and particularly with her. She’s been very, she’s separated herself from the whole Hollywood thing, as much as she can, and she’s really creative, and very sensitive, and very loving and open. When you think about her in ‘The Thomas Crown Affair’ and stuff, there’s a real intimidation factor about her beauty, and her charisma and stuff, but I think, deep down inside, she just likes to garden, and chill out and stuff. I love that side of her, in the scene, because it’s that side of her, seeing the real human side of her, that makes her so fearless in that scene. So it was great fun to work with her.
Can you talk about the look on your face, because it looks like…? Is it some effort on the make-up person, or is it just the camera?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Can we talk about your face? [Laughs] Who did that?
Is that the first time you lost some weight?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : I have an extraordinary make-up artist, who’s working with me on this movie ‘Prisoners’, right now. And then he came, and he was nice enough to come and work with me on this movie. We had extraordinary department heads; from Rob Elswit, who shot our movie, all the way to our production designer. Every single department head, it was nuts! It was a 7.5 million dollar movie! The fact that we had all these people working with us was insane. So Donald, who did my make-up, I also worked on character with him. It was very important. It’s not about anything other than the creation of a good feeling inside. There’s no continuity with how we worked. There’s emotional continuity, given the scenario, and the scene and the day and the moment, has nothing to do with anything besides that. He was helpful there. We did subtle things. We made subtle choices and stuff. One of the biggest things that Lou really only sweats once in the movie, and that was a very particular thing, that we talked about often. In the times when he’s giving his speeches, or when he’s talking to Riz, or when he’s under pressure, when he’s with the police officers, when they’re questioning him, he’s in the interrogation room, he does not sweat. The only time that he sweats is out of excitement, when he’s going through that house. When he comes out of that, and he runs down that hill, and he’s driving away, is the only time that you see him sweaty. Because he’s fucking psyched! Every other exchange, there’s this cool confidence to him. So those types of things, as far as my face, and the choices that are made, losing weight and stuff. That was just months of, as we were getting into shooting, I would do stuff like run to set, and at a certain point I was just running through Griffith Park all the time, eight to fifteen miles a day, and I was just training myself as a coyote, with all the coyotes and stuff. And then my face just changed, I think. I don’t think I was really even aware, until a few months ago, and we were going through all the cuts. You start to separate from all the characters, and go like “Wow!” The place where you are mentally, it has so much less to do mentally than it does, physically. I can go back there at any moment and remember. I can go back to that Chinese restaurant, Like the scene of an accident, or something.
The way things are, like it or not, when the film comes out, you will be asked to make an indictment against this business, and how we cover stories, and how we put out information.
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Just like you get to make an indictment of us, and what we put out.
Are you comfortable being put in that position? Have you thought about what you will say, or how you feel about that? Obviously, it’s a work of fiction, but is there reality in there, and do you define it as okay? I’m just thinking of this question as I’m saying it, but I can see it now, on CNN, or one of those shows, assuming we stop getting ebola, and say, shooting each other? Is there possibly some conversation on that?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Well, my form of communication is through the movies that I make. That’s one thing that I can say. I consider that to be, as much as I consider that to be entertainment, and it should be entertaining, that’s why I think, this movie is actually really fun to watch, and entertaining, as well as I feel like it’s some kind of commentary. I feel like when you can get the two in a movie, I feel like those are the types of movies I want to make. I believe that movies are political, no matter what. I think that if you’re going to escape, or you’re going to overtly deal with something political, it’s still political, because there’s stuff going on all the time. And I think I was taught and raised that it’s important to know, to be informed, and to make choices based on that, from a number of different standpoints, not just one. So I don’t think it’s necessarily, I don’t think any story’s good unless there’s a bit of indictment somewhere. There’s a… unless there’s some kind of comment; I would say indictment is the wrong word, I would say commentary. Dan Gilroy has a point of view. And I think he’s created this character, as i’ve said before, to shine light on the fact that I don’t think a character like Lou could exist, unless we really created him. There have been people who have seen the movie, and have come up to me, who do work in the media, and said stuff like, “I would buy the footage that Lou…” I’m like, “Wow! That’s interesting to me. That’s fascinating,” but at the same time, it’s true. You can go anywhere, on any news site, and scroll down, like you even said, we don’t want to read half of the things that we have to read. And I’m sure you don’t want to cover it. But it’s important that people know it. I have been more moved by the media, emotionally, my heart has swelled, as a result of stories that I’ve read, and I’ve been disgusted at the same time, in different stories that I’ve read. And I think that’s what’s beautiful about the job that you all do. That we’re all part of it. I feel the same way about movies. There are movies that do the same thing to me.
In the movie, L.A. is kind of its own character, and it’s beautiful. Can you tell me how you describe L.A., and how that played into your character?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : L.A. is where I was born, and where I was raised. So it’s filled with all of that stuff for me, my childhood and stuff, driving around L.A… it means that, everytime I’m here, I live in New York, now, I flew here just a few hours ago. Every time that I fly in, it’s… I love L.A. I don’t want to quote Randy Newman, but… The movie would not have been able to been made, anywhere else. This is a Los Angeles movie. It’s a movie about the world, and I think that L.A., from my experience of L.A. has every single culture in it. I mean, it’s just this extraordinarily vast melting pot. And also the topography of it is really important, because there’s also the desert outside, and there’s the city, the metropolis. And Dan and I talked a lot about this, that the borders from space of Los Angeles, it goes from like electric to total darkness, into the desert. You know, there’s the green grass, and the lawns we created, are all man-made, and outside of that, is wilderness and the animal kingdom, and the wild. They come in, these animals come in at night. Who, who lives in L.A., has not had an exchange with a coyote? You know what I mean? Anytime that I talk to somebody who’s seen the movie, and said that I based this character off of a coyote, they go, “Oh!” Because it’s like, who hasn’t been eyefucked by a coyote. You know? They are not intimidated by you at all? In fact, they’re looking for the most vulnerable aspect of you. And they’re a beautiful animal. I have grown to love them, because I’ve done so much research, and felt like I was one of them, while I was playing this character. But they are ruthless, you know? And because they are also starving.
Are you living in New York because you’re living there, or are you living there because it’s a cool city?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : I live in New York because my family lives there. My nieces live there, my mother lives there. My family all lives in New York. And my family is more important to me than where I live, but they all happen to be there, but it happens to be a wonderful city, too.
Are you excited about Broadway?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : Am I excited about Broadway? I’m so excited, I can’t wait! I did a show about a year and a half ago, with the same writer and director, on a different show. It’s my favorite place to be, is up on stage. Like every musician gets to go on tour, you know what i mean? In my acting, the movie is my album. The theater is the live show, and so I can’t wait. That’s a different animal! That’s the animal, I always want to come out and they say, “Cut!”
What’s the name of your play?
JAKE GYLLENHAAL : It’s called ‘Constellations’ by Nick Payne.
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents.
Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
From director Dan Gilroy, NIGHTCRAWLER will have you on the edge of your seat when it hits the big screen on Halloween, October 31st.
WAMG invites you to enter for a chance to win passes (Good for 2) to the advance screening of NIGHTCRAWLER on Tuesday, October 28th at 7PM in the St. Louis area. We will contact the winners by email.
Answer the following:
Jake Gyllenhaal played a NASA engineer in what film?
OFFICIAL RULES:
1. YOU MUST BE IN THE ST. LOUIS AREA THE DAY OF THE SCREENING.
2. ENTER YOUR NAME AND ANSWERS IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW.
3. YOU MUST SUBMIT THE CORRECT ANSWER TO OUR QUESTION ABOVE TO WIN. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY.
In September, fellow WAMG writer Michael Haffner attended Fantastic Fest and has been reviewing the various films he saw in Austin. You can check out all his reviews HERE. Among the many movies he took in was the upcoming NIGHTCRAWLER.
His response after the screening was, “the film builds to a nerve-racking climax that will have you on the edge of your seat.” Be on the lookout for his review as well as his interview with the film’s director, Dan Gilroy.
Open Road Films has just released a new TV spot and poster for their upcoming thriller, NIGHTCRAWLER. This new sneak peek at the film shows Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal), a driven young man desperate for work, who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism.
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles.
Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
NIGHTCRAWLER crawls into theaters this Halloween, October 31st.
Celebrate Halloween with Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Bill Paxton, and Riz Ahmed in the upcoming pulse-pounding thriller, NIGHTCRAWLER. Take a look in the new trailer below.
(Yahoo Movies)
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism.
Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents.
Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou blurs the line between observer and participant to become the star of his own story.
NIGHTCRAWLER will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and hits theaters October 31st.
NIGHTCRAWLER is a pulse-pounding thriller set in the nocturnal underbelly of contemporary Los Angeles.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Lou Bloom, a driven young man desperate for work who discovers the high-speed world of L.A. crime journalism. Finding a group of freelance camera crews who film crashes, fires, murder and other mayhem, Lou muscles into the cut-throat, dangerous realm of nightcrawling — where each police siren wail equals a possible windfall and victims are converted into dollars and cents. Aided by Rene Russo as Nina, a veteran of the blood-sport that is local TV news, Lou thrives. In the breakneck, ceaseless search for footage, he becomes the star of his own story.
Here’s a look at the trailer.
The movie also stars Bill Paxton and Riz Ahmed and is directed by Dan Gilroy.
From Open Road Films, NIGHTCRAWLER hits theaters October 17, 2014.
