Gyllenhaal signs for Mendes movie
Hollywood heart-throb Jake Gyllenhaal has signed to star in the leading role of Sam Mendes' third big screen movie Jarhead.
The Day After tomorrow star, 23, is set to star in Mendes' adaptation of former US marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 best-selling autobiographical book about his pre-Desert Storm mobilisation in Saudi Arabia and fighting in Kuwait.
Mendes explains: "This is equal parts black humour, honesty, rage, lyricism, profanity and the mixture of machismo jarhead culture. With the exception of Three Kings, this is a war that has been overlooked but which has a burning relevance to what is happening right now in the Middle East.
The English director, who is married to Titanic beauty Kate Winslet, has delayed his Sweeney Todd project to film Jarhead in the White Sands National Park in New Mexico next month.
