Happy New Year everyone! Hope 2005 brings you all good health, great cheer and more Adrien goodness than you can stand! Thank goodness January seems to be holding fabulous promise for that last part.

It appears that Adrien is currently on break from KING KONG filming and is back stateside from these photographs at Getty Images and these from WireImage (Tip: To see all his images together, just do a search on his name.) Both sites indicate the pictures were taken at the premiere of the 2005 Volkswagen Jetta on January 5, 2005. The New York Daily News reported his attendance Wednesday evening at “the 2005 Volkswagen Jetta launch in West Hollywood”, and this article from The Sacremento Bee mentions that the 2005 VW Jetta was being unveiled at the 2005 Greater Los Angeles Auto Show.

Don’t forget that Adrien is to present his THE VILLAGE co-star, Bryce Dallas Howard, with the Rising Star Award at the 16th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala tomorrow evening, January 8, 2005. Which means more photo opportunities for us fangirls, and most likely, while dressed to the nines! :: WOOT! ::

And speaking of THE VILLAGE, it comes out on video and DVD next Tuesday. Reviews are popping up in newspapers everywhere.

And just in case you have not already seen it in your regular browsing at Kong Is King, a new photograph has been posted up as part of a story by MSN: Adrien Brody as Jack Driscoll. :: Squeee! ::

Fangirl Note: The camo really brings out the green in his eyes, don’t you think?

Adrien presented the Rising Star award to his THE VILLAGE co-star, Bryce Dallas Howard, at the Palm Springs Film Festival last night. We found some pics of our boy stylin’ in a nice dark suit, as Ginger predicted.

There’s another pic of Adrien and Michelle on the red carpet. We’ll keep an eye out for more!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: God Bless Peter Jackson. He is a very intelligent director who knows what the fans want and delivers it. In this case, he delivers to the fangirls (cue choir of angels): Wet!Adrien.

From a USA Today article on the Palm Springs Film Festival:

Adrien Brody flew in from the New Zealand set of King Kong, where he said he had been “wrestling monsters underwater,” to present the Rising Star Award to The Village co-star Bryce Dallas Howard.

Emphasis mine. ‘Scuse, must go plotz now.

Business 2.0’s business2blog has an article about “the death of business casual” featuring a photo of Adrien in Juicy brand camo.

(And yes, they misspelled his name. Argh. Brophy?!?)

Thanks to my pal Teresa for the heads-up!

Rope of Silicon has the one sheet for THE JACKET (there’s actually two of them, one featuring Adrien and one featuring Keira Knightley–click PREV to see Miss Thing). They also have production stills for the film that we haven’t seen; keep clicking PREV in that photo album to see them all.

ETA: Comingsoon.net has the trailer and other goodies!

How very cool!!! Our darling Adrien will be announcing the Academy Award nominations at 5:30 a.m. Pacific time (1330 GMT), Tuesday, January 25. I’ll be on the train, unfortunately…set your VCRs!

Don’t forget! THE JACKET premieres this coming Sunday, January 23rd, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah and it is expected that Adrien will be in attendance!

Quint from Ain’t It Cool News has a KING KONG set report from New Zealand. He wasn’t part of any official press junket; just a fan who knew some of the principles from LOTR and showed up in New Zealand and, with the usual PJ & Co. good naturedness, was given some access to the set (in exchange for some embargoes and a confidentiality agreement, natch).

The article has the pic of Adrien from Newsweek that we’ve already seen and also mentions that there will be two more set reports, including one with “some flirtation between Jack Driscoll and Ann Darrow.” w00t!

It’s a fun article, complete with scans of pictures drawn by various cast and crew members! Check it out! Boy, I can’t wait for this movie!

(via KongIsKing.net)

ADRIEN was in Park City, Utah this past weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, attending the world premiere of his new film THE JACKET and generally making the promotional and social rounds. A press conference for the film was held on Saturday. Along with him were his co-stars Keira Knightley (sporting a short ‘do), Daniel Craig (who is getting some buzz from his performance in THE JACKET as well as the much anticipated British film Layer Cake), Jennifer Jason Leigh, youngster Laura Marano, screenplay writer Massy Tadjedin, as well as director John Marbury.

NOTE: There are a good deal of photos on the wire services, which I have tried to link appropriately to below, but it maybe best just to go to each site and search on Adrien’s name to make sure you see them all!

Social Sojourns: Adrien made some social rounds on Saturday, with both Michelle DuPont and Ceelo! Mr. Vicious took Adge along to the Philips’ gathering at the Village at the Lift. Adrien made time to attend Entertainment Weekly’s Winter Bash sponsored by Hewlett-Packard while sporting jeans, a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket (oh la la!), a green parka and a devilishly charming smile. Then later, he and Michelle showed up at Motorola Late Night Lounge.

Cast Portrait Sessions: Group and individual portraits of the cast and director were taken on Sunday. WARNING: There are some great up-close photos of Adrien’s eyes! And it appears that WireImage has different portraits taken on Saturday.

Sunday’s Premiere: See photos from the premiere here at Getty Images and here at WireImage. WireImage also has some pix from the after party. Adrien is wearing a fabulous coat, by the way.

Auto Love: Adrien, Keira and Jennifer dropped by to sign the Jetta outside the VW Lounge on Sunday. Adrien reallys seems to be into Volkswagen here lately! But that isn’t all. Adrien also made time to sign a vehicle at the GM in Park City on Saturday.

And the reports, reviews and other related articles are beginning to flow in:

“Sundance warms to The Jacket” from FilmStew.com.

For Brody, who on Tuesday will announce this year’s Academy Award nominations before returning to New Zealand to continue work on Peter Jackson’s remake of King Kong, his latest journey to Sundance is a nostalgic one. In 1996, he came to Park City for the premiere of Ten Benny, an ultimately little seen drama in which he played a shoe store clerk who borrows money from a loan shark with disastrous results.

“It took probably, all in, 300 grand to make, including everything,” remembers Brody. “You can’t really get much made at that price any more. It was a good film and it was exciting to be part of it and to come to a place like Sundance and have that kind of movie mission for a young, unknown actor.”

Review by Mike Goodridge with ScreenDaily.com

An intriguing hybrid of time travel thriller, asylum horror movie and visual arts experiment, The Jacket may ultimately fail in its ambitions to fuse those genres but it remains an engaging and original entertainment which has the potential to tap into a medium to wide audience on its opening weekends around the world.

“Filming in Glascow holds fond memories for Hollywood stars.”

Co-star Brody said: “I think it’s a wonderful, exciting urban environment – very different from where I grew up in Queens, but also similar. I loved the energy of the people; they were very real.

Scotland bids for THE JACKET premiere in the UK.

And the Sundance Diary from the San Franciso Chronicle:

Oscar call: Adrien Brody, at Sundance with the bleak psychological drama “The Jacket,'’ has to rush to Los Angeles to announce the Oscar nominees at 5: 30 in the morning Tuesday with Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “I was very honored that Frank requested me, ‘’ said Brody, who hopes to catch a few hours of sleep before showing up for a 4 a.m. makeup call. “At least there won’t be any pressure on me. I’m not expecting to read my own name.'’

Wait until this time next year.

Duane Byrge’s review of THE JACKET is up at the Hollywood Reporter.

Fleshing out this high horror are the layered performances, especially Brody as the tormented amnesiac. Exuding goodness but crisped to the gills with meds and madness, Brody is a true fright. With his wiry frame and electric-socket haircut, he’s a walking skeleton of shell-shock.

Looking bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, not to mention sleek in a sharp suit and tie, Adrien announced the nominations for the 77th Annual Academy Awards this morning in Los Angeles, at 5:30 AM no less. WireImage and Getty have a few photos up, and hopefully more will come in.

OK. So maybe not so bright-eyed. Give the man a break! He’s been very busy!

EDIT: A little report from Zap2it.

I suppose the photo goodness is over for a while now, as it’s back to New Zealand and the KING KONG Manhattan set!

From the Salt Lake Tribune:

….. the film contains harrowing scenes in which Brody, as a mental patient, is locked for hours in a dark, silent morgue-like drawer. Brody said he prepared for the role by talking to William Hurt about that actor’s experience shooting scenes in a sensory-deprivation tank for his 1980 film, “Altered States.”

Brody, who won an Oscar for “The Pianist,” also experimented with a sensory-deprivation tank himself on the film’s set in Glasgow, Scotland. Brody said the experience, which involved floating in water for hours, heightened his mental and spiritual awareness.

“If you stay in there long enough, you don’t need drugs,” he said.

EDIT: And it appears Adrien didn’t just get up yesterday and hop on a plane to LA. He managed to drop by the St. Jude’s House in Park City as well.

There is a nice article about Adrien written by Duane Dudek with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel up at their website today. It talks a bit about THE JACKET and KING KONG.

“Brody still on a whirlwind: It’s been non-stop work for 2003 Oscar winner.”

Brody, who was last seen in “The Village,” said he has been offered other blockbuster-type fare over the years “when I could have used the money - I passed on them because they didn’t inspire me.

“Hopefully,” he said, “there will continue to be a nice balance where I can do the creative, low-budget films and then also do interesting roles in larger studio films.”

Yeah. Take that Diet Coke doubters.

Adrien talks a little more about his post-Oscar role choices in an article from Canoe.ca.

Brody the actor can relate. Since winning the Academy Award for The Pianist, he’s wriggled free of the suffocating career confines that can come with sudden fame and clout. Instead of headlining high-concept blockbusters, he’s taken on supporting roles in films such as last year’s The Village. Hardly what you’d expect from a gifted performer with the quirky confidence to kiss Halle Berry as he accepted his Oscar. Or a rising star who probably could have inked a lucrative deal for the comic-book movie of his choosing.

“It’s a conscious decision to follow my heart and not follow a business strategy,” he says while discussing The Jacket at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

“I’ve done everything for the right reasons. I don’t like the (garbage) that comes with being a celebrity and the personal part of that. What I want is to not change who I am just because a lot more is accessible to me … It’s important to try and continue to do good work and excel and do bigger projects, but only if the roles are interesting.”

Sounds like Adge’s “people” got out the message that he’s not hurting for roles; just being choosy!

He talks a bit about KING KONG as well…

Due in December, the epic is Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson’s retelling of the classic adventure about a group of renegades who stumble upon the giant titular ape and bring it back alive to New York City. Brody stars alongside Jack Black and, in the role made famous by Fay Wray, Naomi Watts. Needless to say, it’s a lot bigger — and likely a bit more commercial — than anything else Brody’s done.

“I can’t say much, nor should I. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of time to talk about it. I’ll probably be talking about it for a year.”

Brody did, however, reveal his character, Jack Driscoll, is a playwright who ends up falling for — and then trying to save — the starlet Watts plays.

Ah, these teasing little hints!!!

Oh, and Keira wouldn’t show her butt in her “sex scenes” in THE JACKET.

Before her first sex scene, Knightley made special arrangements with director JOHN MAYBURY: “It was kind of the first time I had done a nude thing. It was cool. It was only John, the cameraman and the focus-puller, so there were only three people.”

Three? Where was Adrien?!? What kind of screwed-up sex scene is this gonna be? Sheesh. Sounds like Miss Thing needs a few lessons from one of Adrien’s previous co-stars.

I just uploaded some new photos from Sundance in the Get Your Party On album and a couple more (including the Binaca Blast, redux) from this morning’s Oscar nominations in the Oscar Night album. Enjoy!

(A particular favorite!)