PRISONERS : Media alert/press interviews/ other publicity

[jo]

[jo]

Short video clip about their future plans. Jake talks about what he is working on soon.

Hugh says he is slowly crawling out of the doghouse at his place ( after working on 4 movies one after another) -- but he says everything is fluid at this point.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-zDBRtdf2w


Jo

[jo]

Denis Villeneuve and his cast, excl Viola Davis.

[birchie]

Hugh tweeted this so most have probably seen it. I just wanted to put it in because it would be such a fabulous picture if not for the fuzzy lighting.

Sue

[jo]

Thanks, Sue!

I don't have Instagram, so your photo reproductions from Hugh's tweets are always welcome smiley-signs101


Jo

[jo]

Another great photo --

[birchie]

Hugh & his new pal Jake! They seem to enjoy each others company!

Sue

[jo]

The day after the premiere -- the producers, the creative team, and the main cast held a press conference:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAlt1_S_7Hc

Very interesting insights on how the film was created - the artistic instincts and the reality issues involved.

I can't help but compare it with the press conference for DAYS OF FUTURE PAST ( mostly joking around) - here there are things one learns about filmmaking. PRISONERS, as someone said, is a good example of "Indie meets Commercial"!

On the lighter side, someone summarized 5 (funny) things they learned from the conference --

arts.nationalpost.com/2013/09/07/tiff-2013-five-things-we-learned-at-the-press-conference-for-prisoners-featuring-hugh-jackman-jake-gyllenhaal-and-maria-bello/

My vote for the best are tied between Maria's frustration on working with Hugh...and the question to Jake on when he plans to start his own family - LOL!


Jo

[klenotka]

Jake looks almost in love with Hugh They look great. Both of them. I am not normally a fan of Jake´s look (but I DO like him as an actor) but he looks great here. And they match

[njr]

Sept 7, 2013 12:40:48 GMT -5 birchie said:

Hugh & his new pal Jake! They seem to enjoy each others company!

Sue

A budding bromance! Jack looks in love!

Nancy

[njr]

Sept 7, 2013 11:52:15 GMT -5 jo said:

Thanks, Sue!

I don't have Instagram, so your photo reproductions from Hugh's tweets are always welcome smiley-signs101


Jo

I'm not "on" Instagram either, but can see the photos in Hugh's tweets. You don't even need to be logged on to Twitter.

Nancy

[njr]

Sept 6, 2013 20:30:53 GMT -5 jo said:

Live stream from the premiere of PRISONERS -- Hugh, Jake, and Terence talking to media!

www.cp24.com/video?clipId=710809&binId=1.1127680&playlistPageNum=1

? Watched this but did not see them.

Nancy

[jo]

I'm only using a laptop - I need to download something to be able to access Instagram on a PC ( which I am not keen to do yet). I've found no use for an IPad/tablet computer until now, I'm afraid

Jo

[Jamie]

Sept 7, 2013 14:30:03 GMT -5 jo said:

I'm only using a laptop - I need to download something to be able to access Instagram on a PC ( which I am not keen to do yet). I've found no use for an IPad/tablet computer until now, I'm afraid

Jo

Do you have a smart phone? I have my Instagram on my IPhone but look at others Instagrams on Twitter and such at Instagram.com

[jo]

h Interview with Hugh --

Hugh Jackman’s take-no-prisoners performance at TIFF 2013

Plays a desperate father in Denis Villeneuve’s gripping Prisoners



ByJASON ANDERSON

Given that he's over 25 features deep into a remarkably diverse and prolific screen and stage career, it may be a surprise to learn that Prisoners marks Hugh Jackman's first official visit to TIFF with a new movie to present. Looking typically dapper in a black blazer during an interview at the Shangri-La the day after the film's Friday-night premiere, the garrulous Australian star seems pleased that the experience has lived up to his expectations.

Says Jackman, "I'd asked filmmakers and other people why they love the Toronto festival and they all say it's the only one that genuinely melds the business with the fans. I felt that last night — it felt like a premiere at Times Square or Leicester Square in London. There were thousands of people, real fans. And they were going in to see the movie too!"

Jackman had more to say about the city's role in his career and the demands of playing the desperate father of a missing child in Prisoners, a grim yet gripping thriller that marks the first Hollywood venture for Montreal director Denis Villeneuve.

You may be new to TIFF but your relationship with Toronto extends quite a bit further back, doesn't it?

My first American film was shot here, which was X-Men. That time I'll never forget because it was the last time I did a film when no one knew who the hell I was. That film changed everything for me. I was with my wife here and it was my first studio film and the first time I really got paid. I remember when the per diem would come in and the per diem was more money than I'd ever seen. We actually had to parcel it out before going back to L.A. because there's a limit to how much cash we could take back. We'd keep it in drawers and go, "I don't even know how to spend this!" I was tipping in restaurants like there was no tomorrow — I was making it rain!

Prisoners could hardly be mistaken for a superhero movie, especially with its discomfiting take on the morality of many of its characters' actions. Do you think it may be a provocation for some viewers?

I think the trailers deliberately make it out to be more of a generic thriller and there are elements at the beginning of the film that make you think, "Oh, I know where this is going." But it subverts that all the way along. All of a sudden it doesn't feel so comfortable rooting for the characters you were rooting for. The movie revels in that moral ambiguity and that's why it's so powerful and why Denis is such a great director for this material. I read the script one or two years before Denis came along and loved it but I said, "I can't sign on until I know who'll direct this." I wanted to make sure it was a person who could essentially make a drama in the clothing of a conventional thriller. In the wrong hands, all you'd notice is the outfit, know what I mean? And he just gave it the heart, the complexity and the layers of what the story speaks to.

Do you think it may be especially hard on parents? It certainly preys on very primal fears.

I've asked people who don't have kids and they feel the same thing so I think it's an elemental relationship. We've all been parents or been parented to different degrees so we all understand it. That's why the Ariel Castro story will captivate a whole nation. Speaking as a parent myself, the movie is uncomfortable to watch. My wife watched it with me and she removed her hand from my hand as I was getting into some of the toughest scenes.

You've done all kinds of roles but not so many of your performances contain this level of intensity—have there been many other times you've faced comparable demands?

When I did The Fountain with Darren Aronofsky, there was an intensity there but not as sustained. Funnily enough, my wife just reminded me that the very first film I did in Australia, Erskineville Kings, had a similar character. But it's not every day when you get asked to play something as intense and raw as this. Let's face it — after page 7 of the script, you're in hell. And by the way, this was shooting during awards season so every weekend I was going off to some red carpet for Les Miserables to drink champagne and sing songs. I thought this would be a nightmare and I was going to ask to delay the shoot, but we'd already started so I thought, "I've just got to suck it up." Weirdly, I think it worked in my favour. The shoot was so intense that I needed the release. Just going to hang out with other actors and talk about another film meant I didn't have to stay there all the time, constantly worrying about what was coming up next.

As draining as it may have been, are you looking forward to doing more movies like Prisoners?

To do something that has to be that raw and emotional all the time, I certainly wouldn't want to do back-to-back movies like this. But I did love the style of filmmaking and the fact we were slaves to the truth of it — we really bared the souls of these characters. Having a movie that resonates with people longer than the two-and-a-half hours they're sitting there, that does turn me on and I'd love to do more of those. Like Movie 43! (He laughs.) That one resonates, particularly for my teenage children!

Btw, from another interview, Jake G said that it was due to Hugh that the movie gots its full financing. Was that because Warner Bros considered Hugh bankable enough for the budget that this movie would comfortably require? Or did WME and Patrick Whitesell help h Hugh work out the whole deal, including with the studio?


Jo

[birchie]

I thought this was a cute piece: Light fun and serious Oscar buzz grace 2013 Toronto Film Festival

TORONTO – — Hugh Jackman did a cartwheel on the third floor of the Shangri La Hotel here early Friday evening.

Dressed all in black and looking dapper, it was a private performance for a few friends he’d been serenading with show tunes. But it was proof that the Toronto International Film Festival, on through Sept. 15, is filled with unexpected moments.

Most of those moments, of course, have more to do with films than acrobatics. And who would have thought that the atmosphere of Detroit would be captured somewhat poetically in a film about ancient vampires in love?

Director Jim Jarmusch, apparently. He based most of “Only Lovers Left Alive,” a sort of art house vampire family spat romantic comedy starring Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and Mia Wasikowska, in the Motor City.

For a good time, the vampires cruise the ruins and contemplate Detroit’s eventual comeback. Don’t we all?

In terms of high-profile films, pretty much every one agrees Sandra Bullock is out of this world as an astronaut set adrift in space in the harrowing “Gravity,” which arrives in theaters Oct. 4. It’s “Apollo 13” meets “Speed” and although it’s hardly orthodox stuff, it could net Bullock an Oscar nomination.

Jackman is also getting good buzz, along with Jake Gyllenhaal and a fine supporting cast, for “Prisoners,” an ultra-dark but layered story of child abduction and vengeance. It comes to theaters Sept. 20. Don’t bring the kids, but do bring your conscience, which is sure to get scrambled.

If there’s a new face at the festival making an impact it’s Daniel Brühl, the Spanish actor who stars in Ron Howard’s race car story “Rush” (Sept. 27) and supports in “The Fifth Estate,” the film about WikiLeaks guru Julian Assange (Oct. 18). Both have been well received.

In terms of a very well-known face, Daniel (Harry Potter) Radcliffe is here with three films, none of which seems remotely wizardly. In “Kill Your Darlings” he plays a budding Allen Ginsberg with wonder and intensity; still to come are the fantasy-horror piece “Horns” (he grows them) and “The F Word,” a comedy in which he’s forced to become his would be lover’s friend.

Other potential Oscar contenders that are surfacing include “Dallas Buyers Club,” in which a very thin Matthew McConaughey sells pharmaceuticals to fellow HIV sufferers; “Philomena,” which has Judi Dench searching for a child she gave up at birth 50 years ago; and the devastating “12 Years a Slave,” about a free black man (Chiwetel Ejiofor) before the Civil War who’s abducted and sold into slavery.

And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg as the festival is just underway. It’s enough to make a movie-lover do cartwheels.

[e-mail]
twitter.com/toomuchTomLong

Sue

[jo]

Alert from the KATIE COURIC show --

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Katie

When: 9:00 AM
Where: New York, NY
Age: 16 +

Guests: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis

[jo]

Is this part of the publicity campaign for PRISONERS?

Entertainment News‏@entnewsuk9m
Tomorrow's key events (2): Victoria Beckham and Hugh Jackman at #NYFW; Scarlett Johansson, Daniel Radcliffe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt at #TIFF

NYFW - New York Fashion Week.

Remember when he attended one event ( and signed T-shirts for rhe event) during the early run of A STEADY RAIN. Maybe Anna Wintour has invited him again to grace one such event, as a New Yorker?


Jo

[jo]

From the BWW photo coverage of the Press Conference --

www.broadwayworld.com/article/Photo-Coverage-Hugh-Jackman-More-at-PRISONERS-Tiff-Festival-Photo-Call-20130909?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+broadwayworld%2FpWRb+%28BroadwayWorld.com+Featured+Content%29

[mamaleh]

Whoa--I've got the vapors. How gorgeous is he in those photos?!

Ellen

[JH4HJ]

Hugh Jackman reveals how Denis Villeneuve pushed him to another level in 'Prisoners'

During an interview with Jackman late last week during this year's Toronto International Film Festival, I asked last year's best actor nominee about one particular moment in the interrogation where Keller completely loses it. You've seen Jackman throw down some "Wolverine rage" before, but he's never been anywhere near as ferocious as he is in this one particular scene. Watch the video to hear what Villeneuve said to him after his first take and then what happened next.

I can't embed the video, but you can access it here.
Full article

[mamaleh]

Sept 5, 2013 23:08:15 GMT -5 jo said:

Hugh learns to greet in Hebrew

www.youtube.com/watch?v=csF7zidPCvI&feature=youtu.be

Always the most charming interview subject!


Jo

LOL! Just catching up with interviews I'd missed during the High Holidays. If I heard correctly, did Hugh's (or the film's) publicist really say he had a "farbissineh punim"? Can't imagine ever-cheerful Hugh's having a sour expression. (Remember the aptly named "Frau Farbissineh" from the AUSTIN POWERS movies?

He's getting to be a real New Yorker. So he should know that the L'Shana Tovah" greeting more accurately means "Have a sweet/good year" rather than Happy New Year. The holiday's emphasis is more on sober reflection than merrymaking.

Fun mini-interview. Thanks, Jo.

Ellen

[JH4HJ]

Sept 9, 2013 8:21:22 GMT -5 jo said:

From the BWW photo coverage of the Press Conference --

He looks like he's in "theater mode" in these photos. I think his stage "look" differs from anything I've seen on film.

[mamaleh]

I was surprised to read In a recent interview Hugh's statement that lately, for the first time, he's feeling the same thrill while acting on film that he feels on stage. So maybe the gap between the two is closing.

Interesting. I wonder what movie elicited that "theater high," so to speak.

Ellen

[jo]

It was from a VULTURE article where he talks about PRISONERS.

www.vulture.com/2013/09/toronto-hugh-jackman-pushes-himself-harder.html

Toronto: Hugh Jackman Pushes Himself Harder (But When Will He Hang Up Those Claws?)
By Kyle Buchanan




It was late at night, and Hugh Jackman was spent. He had spent the last several hours shooting what’s surely the most grueling scene in his new film, Prisoners — and since this is a punishing dramatic thriller about two kidnapped little girls, that’s really saying something — and he felt he’d given everything he had to give on the take he’d just finished. As Jackman panted, recovering from his character’s emotional breakdown, director Denis Villeneuve walked towards him from behind the camera.

"Maybe this is my arrogance, but I thought he was going to come up and say, 'Thank you,'" recalls Jackman. "And he says, 'I need you to go there, man.' I was like, 'That wasn't there?'"


The next take — where Jackman was pushed even beyond the breaking point he'd previously reached, moved to obliterate the set around him with a hammer (and very nearly pounding it into his costar Paul Dano’s face) — is the one that made it into the film. "I didn't know what else to do, but him pushing me actually taught me a lesson about letting go, to have no idea what's going to happen," he says. "And thank goodness there wasn't another take after that, because I ruined the set right there!"


It’s hard to imagine that Jackman has much left to give after his last few films, an exhausting trifecta that started with his vein-popping turn as Jean Valjean in Les Misérables, found him more jacked than ever before in this past summer's The Wolverine, and now drags him through hell — and further — in Prisoners, where Jackman plays a father devastated by his daughter’s disappearance and driven to increasingly dark places to get her back. The actor claims he’s able to easily shrug those roles off after filming, but as he sits across from me in a Toronto hotel room, he suffers a sneezing attack. "Excuse me," he says, taking a moment to return to normal. The 44-year-old may look like he has the constitution of an ox, but those back-to-back-to-back films can still take a toll when Jackman puts so much of himself into them.


"When I finish a film, my wife will often say, 'I've got my husband back,'" he admits. "When you're filming, there's always ten or twenty percent of you that's constantly thinking, 'What's tomorrow? What's the mountain I have to climb?'"


For the intense Prisoners, that mountain is one that Jackman had to keep climbing and descending. "I remember thinking it would be a nightmare, because we started filming in mid-January, the day after the Golden Globes, and Les Miz had blown up," Jackman explains. "I was going to awards shows every weekend and flying here and there and doing this thing and that, and I thought, 'How am I going to go from this film to all that?' But in the end, I think it helped, because I needed to release the pressure from the set."


Jackman hasn’t had much time off since; in addition to the all-consuming awards season gauntlet, he’s been busy this year promoting The Wolverine and reprising his iconic character for next summer’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, which ties together nearly every X character in an ambitious time travel storyline that brought the house down this summer at Comic-Con, where over a dozen of the film’s famous actors showed up to a surprise panel. "I wanted to say to James McAvoy and Nick Hoult and all these young guys in the cast that it's not normally like this!" laughs Jackman. “There was this guy up in front who made me laugh so hard, just swearing as everyone came out: 'You've got to be fucking kidding! Fuck me, man! This is motherfucking amazing!'"


"I had been on the set for a long time," continues Jackman, "but it wasn't until we were at that panel that it struck me: It wasn't just the X-Men up there — it was Ian McKellen as Gandalf, Patrick Stewart from Star Trek, Anna Paquin from True Blood, Jennifer Lawrence from The Hunger Games, Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones. It was overwhelming for people. It was almost too much."


And it may be enough for Jackman, at least when it comes to his most iconic role. The actor admits that his first X-Men spinoff, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, failed to live up to fan expectations and may have depressed the box office for its superior sequel The Wolverine this past summer. "I can tell you this, and I can say this now: I wasn't sure that I would do another Wolverine movie after the first one," he admits. "I just felt that I hadn't done the character justice, and that was a bit of a hole inside of me." Now that The Wolverine has rectified that for Jackman, and with Days of Future Past on the way, he says of his time with the character, "It's nearing the end. I do feel that. If there are any more movies, there would have to be a really good reason for it."


Besides, Jackman’s eager to play some new roles, even if they’re as exhausting as the recent ones he’s seemed to favor. "I feel way more comfortable in front of the camera than I did ten years ago, or even five years ago," he says. "I want to have a real run in the paddock and go for it and take on new challenges that I might not have taken on before as successfully. I have that same feeling in front of the camera now that I used to have on the stage, and that's great for me — although my wife thinks it's a semi-sickness. She's like, 'What's with you and the mountains? Even when you're off, you have to create a mountain!'"

We may be seeing a post-Wolverine era now! He may still tackle action movies as a genre ( where he can be excellent, too) but he probably wants to open his acting horizons broader and deeper. The past three movies could be the start of Hugh Jackman's golden era in movies!

And if the stage roles do not come fast enough ( I am talking to you, Stephen Schwartz ) -- we may lose him to more and more challenging movies!


Jo