Damn Gyllenhaal

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So Jake is finally taking the promise he showed to us in his opening monologue for SNL where he proved he's got a stellar set of pipes and he's making a musical, eh? Via Variety:

Carrey, Gyllenhaal do 'Yankees'

New Line Cinema is playing ball with Jim Carrey and Jake Gyllenhaal on "Damn Yankees," attaching both actors to star in a contemporized film transfer of the classic musical.

Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel are set to write the script.

The musical is being produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, the duo behind New Line's musical "Hairspray"; a sequel to that film is in the works.

"Damn Yankees," which bowed on Broadway in 1955 and won seven Tony Awards, focuses on Joe Boyd, a happily married middle-aged man whose devotion to a hapless pro baseball team prompts him to make a Faustian bargain with the devil to help the team. He's transformed into slugger Joe Hardy, in exchange for Boyd's soul. Boyd can break the deal, but the deadline occurs during the World Series. For good measure, the devil engages Lola, a gorgeous lost soul, to seduce the slugger and seal his fate.

The plan is for Carrey to play the devil, and Gyllenhaal to play Boyd. It's the first musical for each.

Being me I have no knowledge of Damn Yankees other than knowing it's a baseball musical. I see that the glorious 50s pin-up and closet-case Tab Hunter played the role in the original filmed version that Jake's taking on now though, which... no comment (my no comment should be read as plenty of comment by the way).

Anyway, yay Jake making a movie. I'll watch him do anything. And if that anything involves jock-straps, then all the better.
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