tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

He'll soon be the Prince of Persia, play brother to Tobey Maguire and lover to Natalie Portman, and then be a Viagra salesman. If you think about it, Jake Gyllenhaal, who was once considered for the role of Spiderman, must be quite happy with his luck! While he's not Spidey, he's playing the brother of the guy playing the Marvel superhero and he's also playing superhero, who also happens to be a Prince!

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The first movie will once again test his Box office attraction, while the next - Brothers - will give him another shot for possible noms come awards season. The Jim Sheridan film (a remake of Susanne Bier's "Brødre") has Jake playing Tommy, the black sheep of the family. Expects sparks to fly!
A third project, Love and Other Drugs with have him share the big screen with Anne Hathaway. This film is based on Jamie Reidy's memoir "Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman."

After Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead, Gyllenhaal seemed distracted with all the publicities and the media hound. Hopefully, this year and the next will be better years for Jake - both personally and career-wise. I have high expectations for Brothers - being a Jim Sheridan film and with such a stellar cast, it can be both critical and box-office success.

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It was Tobey Maguire, in an interview by the LA Times, who described the kind of character Gyllenhaal was playing:

While the film does contain some harrowing depictions of wartime action, it focuses on the shifting dynamics among the siblings, their father ( Sam Shepard) and Sam's wife and family. Maguire's Sam was a high-school football hero; Gyllenhaal's Tommy is fresh from prison as we meet him. "Tommy finds himself to be unworthy, unlovable," says Maguire of Gyllenhaal's character, "so he isolates, he doesn't get attached or connected. The older brother is such a strait-laced good guy who's been good at things his whole life, had the attention of their father, ended up getting a great wife and family and all of that. And when I go away, Tommy learns how to show up and he learns responsibility. He learns how to care for people and gets cared for." However, the good brother-bad brother relationship is not as simple as it seems. [ read more ]

He went on to describe his own character, who appears to be a solid, dependable individual but in truth, is also damaged as his brother. The role is a welcome change for Maguire, who became too much identified with the Spiderman franchise that more often than not, his previous acting performances (Cider House Rule, Sea Biscuit) were almost forgotten.

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time: This movie is probably my least favorites among the three I've mentioned. But there is something that must be said here - this movie, if it becomes a box offic hit, will be a huge push for Gyllenhaal. ScifiWire mentioned how Jake prepared for the role, and it was Jerry Bruckheimer, the film's producer, who actually made the remarks:

"Yeah, you won't recognize Jake Gyllenhaal," Bruckheimer said in a press conference on Sunday in Beverly Hills, Calif., where he was promoting his latest film, Confessions of a Shopaholic. "I've seen most of Prince of Persia. It looks fantastic." The producer added that Gyllenhaal got his swashbuckler muscles the old-fashioned way. "No, no drugs," he countered to jibes against Gyllenhaal's sudden bulk. "No drugs. [He] just worked really hard." Bruckheimer credited Gyllenhaal with a solid athletic foundation that was easy for his Hollywood trainers to manipulate in different directions. "Well, he's a cyclist anyway, and he bikes all the time," the producer said. "We just had to have him do a little lifting, but he looks fantastic." [ source: ScifiWire ]

About the Movie: From the team that brought the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy to the big screen, Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time," an epic action-adventure set in the mystical lands of Persia. A rogue prince (Jake Gyllenhaal) reluctantly joins forces with a mysterious princess (Gemma Arterton) and together, they race against dark forces to safeguard an ancient dagger capable of releasing the Sands of Time-a gift from the gods that can reverse time and allow its possessor to rule the world.

Watch the teaser trailer below:

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Love and Other Drugs: There's an awesome article from Post-Gazette describing in details the filming of Love and Other Drugs, this part would tell much about the roles:

"It does talk about the pharmaceutical industry with some insight and some penetrating understanding," Zwick said during a break in filming. "It also has elements of a relationship that are more serious and dimensional than just the basic romantic comedy but it's also very funny and very romantic." Gyllenhaal and Hathaway played an unhappily married couple in "Brokeback Mountain" but their relationship here is charged with attraction and passion. "When you see what they have together, that is the heart and soul of the movie," Zwick said. "So chemistry is an elusive thing, in real life as in movies, but you do know it when you see it and know it when you have it." Hathaway, who started filming this week, did her homework about Parkinson's. "She's that kind of actor, as all the good ones are," Zwick said, doing lots of reading and spending time with neurologists and patients. [ read more ]

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More about the book: Jamie Reidy is to the pharmaceutical business what Jerry Maguire was to professional sports and Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can) was to bank fraud. He's the guy who's been there, done that, and walked away with the insider stories. You'll find yourself rooting for Reidy and at the same time, you'll be shocked by the realities of the world that paid his salary.

Hard Sell is a witty exposé of an industry that touches nearly everyone in contemporary America. It reveals the questionable practices of drug reps, nurses, and even physicians. Reidy traces his ups and downs as a rep for giant drug manufacturer Pfizer, maker of some of the most widely prescribed and used drugs in existence, including Viagra.

With equal parts self-confidence and self-mockery, Reidy tells it like it is in the drug-selling trenches that are our local doctors' offices. The result is a funny and fascinating book that will appeal to those with pharmaceutical sales experience, medical professionals, those who have tried Viagra, and any American unhappy with rising drug prices. Hard Sell will be an easy sale this season.

Peter Rost, who described himself as an executive working for a drug company, reviewed the book:

I'm an executive at a major drug company and I hesitated at first about writing a review for "Hard Sell." But in the end I just couldn't resist. "Hard Sell" is simply too funny and too important to ignore. It was a long time since I read a 200+ page book like this one in only a day and laughed this much. I simply couldn't put it down. Jamie Reidy tells the inside story of how he became a drug company rep and all the ways he found out to cash a paycheck while doing as little as possible. If I hadn't already heard many of these creative ideas, shared by drug reps during past sales meetings, I wouldn't have thought this was for real. But behind the humor this is a cautionary tale to policy makers and patients. "Hard Sell" is brutally honest about what really sells drugs. What sells, according to "Hard Sell," is sex. A couple of the most memorable lines in the book are "I witnessed men undergo complete personality makeovers in the presence of female salespeople," and "The women had the most basic human response on their side; regardless how behind schedule or how crazy the day, a male doctor would snap to attention at a mere whiff of perfume or a glance at a pretty girl, his instinctive desire to reproduce having kicked into gear." [ read more ]

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What's on your mind? Which among these movies is your favorite, the one you'll watch in a movie house, why is that? Are you a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal or Tobey Maguire? Let us know what you think!
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