The story of boy meets girl has been told hundreds of times in the world of film. It only makes sense that innovative director Spike Jonze could take such a cliché story and give it a facelift.

Jonze’s new short film, I’m Here, is about the loving relationship of two robots. This 30-minute short, set in contemporary Los Angeles, is a quirky and bizarre love story.

Jonze tells the usual love story, but he replaces the human boy and girl with robots. It seems like a small change, but Jonze works wonders with it. He creates an eccentric facsimile of our world where robots and humans coexist, with hints of prejudice toward robots.

The film centers on the robot Sheldon (Andrew Garfield, Air). He is a shy and introverted robot that is stuck in a quiet, mundane life. Sheldon is stuck in a cycle of working at the library and having a boring life at home, until he meets an adventurous and spontaneous female robot.

Garfield is excellent as Sheldon. His portrayal of Sheldon is one of the most entertaining things about the film. Sienna Guillory (Inkheart) plays the free-spirited robot that Sheldon falls for while waiting at the bus stop. Her carefree attitude entices Sheldon and brings him out of his shell.

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Next year, Garfield will appear in an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go with Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan. This year, he stars in the Red Riding Trilogy, a series of pitch-black murder mysteries filmed for British television. For his part as a cocky investigative journalist working in 1974, the actor grew some intense sideburns. “I didn’t shave for about a year and they had to be trimmed down because they were a bit too bushy,” he says, laughing. “I was kind of proud of that.” His girlfriend was less amused. “She was like, ‘Oh my God, you look like one of the Jonas Brothers!’ That was the opposite of what I was going for.”

So let’s talk a bit about The Red Riding Trilogy. You are brutally tortured in the first film. What was it like filming that?
Yeah, brutal. It felt worse than it looked.  It wasn’t fun actually to do those scenes.  I get quite sick of seeing people doing torture scenes. It feels very like, “Now we’re doing a torture scene. Now is going to be my moment to show how good I am at getting tortured.” So there always seems to be a sort of self-consciousness about it as a “cool” thing to do, but it really isn’t. Or wasn’t.  I just thought, “Ok, how am I going to avoid being someone that I diss.” I went pretty deep and it wasn’t fun.  I kind of wish I had just only scratched the surface.

Do you have that choice?
Of course, I could have done it with only scratching the surface and it would have been rubbish.  It would have been pointless.  Those extremes can be quite fun in a way.  It’s kind of masochistic, but if you’re in the mood for a bit of masochism, it’s fun.

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Channel 4′s new drama series Red Riding made an a decent – but unspectacular – start last night, early figures suggest.

The first episode of the trilogy, which chronicles the legacy of the Yorkshire Ripper murders, averaged 2.45m (12.2%) for Channel 4 between 9pm and 11.15pm.

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Amidst all the corruption and violence, one Yorkshire Post journalist, Eddie Dunford (Andrew Garfield), did eventually come up with the radical idea of trying to do the right thing ? partly because he fell in love with one of the bereaved mothers, Paula Garland (Rebecca Hall, trying hard but unavailingly not to look too glamorous). Inevitably, however, his new-found righteousness didn’t do him, her or the cause of justice any good.

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I’m good at…

Physical things, though sometimes they’re a bit silly like Guitar Heroes, that’s a Playstation game, or hackey sack, silly physical things. I’m good at self-deprecation… I think.

I’m very bad at…

Controlling my emotions. I fly off the handle quite quickly. I have extreme emotions, really highs and lows.

The ideal night out is…

Leaving my brain at home, taking instinct with me and at some point there would be bowling involved. That’s another thing I am good at. Also some incarnation of old dancing, like swing. Then finishing with a stupid Eighties movie at home.

In moments of weakness I…

Go on Facebook.

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Thanks to Lorna for pointing out this new interview.

Andrew Garfield did work experience on a local newspaper to prepare for his role in Red Riding – but he was saved the tea round once they found out who he was.

The Lions For Lambs star plays a rookie journalist in the first instalment of new Channel 4 film trilogy Red Riding, and he took steps to make sure he was prepared for the part.

“I read books, I researched the period as much as I could, I spent some time at the Yorkshire Evening Post in Leeds. I did some work experience there for a week – I just shadowed people, I didn’t report unfortunately. That would have been interesting,” he said.

He continued: “I spent a lot of time at the crown courts just observing cases and shadowing the journalist doing murder trials and very very big cases that were on while I was up there so that was really useful.

“I tried to live the day-to-day of it so I’m coming in in front of the camera with some kind of idea that I could believe in rather than just putting it on.

“No one knew who I was, that was fantastic, but then one person looked me up online and saw that I’d worked with certain people and suddenly my status raised tenfold, then it wasn’t as useful because people were treating me differently which is silly, utterly, silly, they stopped me doing the tea round and all that!”

:: Red Riding begins on Channel 4 on March 5.

Cool a new project!

Source: Metro.

Theres a new projectsl isted on IMDB called “Nineteen Eighty-Three”>

The seemingly untouchable, corrupt West Yorkshire police, and the true evil mastermind behind the child abductions and murders of the last 14 years, can’t resist doing it again. Against them, a fat useless lawyer, and one remorseful copper.

According to the UK’s The Sun, the three Hollywood stars who completed Heath Ledger’s final film role (also featuring Andrew Garfield) have donated their pay to his two-year-old daughter, Matilda.

Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell were worried for Matilda’s future as Heath left an old will which did not include the little one.

Heath’s dad, Kim Ledger, is in control of Heath’s estate. Family members have said they’re concerned that daddy will mismanage the actor’s money.

The three played versions of Heath’s character, Tim, in fantasy epic THE IMAGINARIUM OF DR. PARNASSUS.

Film director Terry Gilliam said, “They didn’t take money ? it goes to Heath’s daughter. That’s extraordinary! And wonderful . . . and when you’re part of that, you think, ‘Ah, this is maybe why I went into the movies in the beginning. I thought it would be full of wonderful people. And we’ve got a movie full of wonderful people who did extraordinary things to help.”

Johnny Depp is a father of two, Jude Law has four and Colin Farrel has a son.

NEWSDAY.COM has published an article about Andrew about BOY A. (Article by Joseph V. Amodio; Glenn Gamboa; Verne Gay)
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This ‘Boy’ could be ready for the ‘A’ list

He’s headed for your local multiplex and we’re telling you now – he’s one to watch. Name’s Andrew Garfield. Heard of him?

Probably not, unless you caught last year’s “Lions for Lambs” (with Robert Redford) or follow Britain’s top acting awards. He won the British Academy’s television award for best actor for his compelling performance in “Boy A,” which hits Manhattan theaters Wednesday and Long Island screens Aug. 1

Garfield, 24, plays Jack, a likable chap with a terrible secret – he’s the infamous Boy A, once on trial as a child for a horrific crime. Now released from prison, he must create a new life. He makes a friend, meets a girl – and you can’t help rooting for him, wondering: Can he outrun his past? Or the press?

Garfield – half Brit, half American – moved to England at age 4. He has few U.S. memories, save for a Disneyland trip “and my brother winning a glow-in-the-dark visor,” he recalls. Cue the jealousy, tears, and wee Andy “was given a cloth visor out of pity, which was nowhere near as exciting and which I rejected shirtily.” (Yes, shirtily, British slang for crabbily.)

Since then, he’s channeled his angst into acting and won two best newcomer awards for stage roles at the National Theatre and Manchester Royal Exchange. He’s shown range, from, like, an American slacker frat boy (in “Lions”) to Romeo (on stage in England). That role, he notes, was “like running a marathon [and] being on stage feels like an adrenaline sport. Connecting with a live audience is incomparable.”

He’ll likely hit Broadway soon enough. As for his own favorite actors? He’s inspired by Daniel Day-Lewis, Dustin Hoffman, Ryan Gosling and Isabelle Huppert. But catch Garfield on screen and it’s like watching Sean Penn in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” or Jodie Foster in “Taxi Driver.”

Andrew recently did an interview with “VULTURE” and he shared his thoughts on topics like Judd Apatow and Heath Ledger.

JUDD APATOW:
“Judd Apatow is genius, I think. He’s defining this decade of comedy, like what Monty Python did for their generation. I’d love to work with him.”

HEATH LEDGER:
“The amount of stuff he left me with was astonishing. I will never ever lose hold of what he had to offer. He just had this total spontaneity and the ability to do anything at any point: fly off the handle or joke. It was electrifying and I never knew what he was going to do ? like punch me, you know? But how he did it is a mystery to me.”

To read the full interview: