How Jake Gyllenhaal Wooed Duncan Jones to Direct 'Source Code'

Jake Gyllenhaal lobbied for Duncan Jones to direct action thriller Source Code, in theaters today up against the PG-13 re-release of The King's Speech.

"He had seen my first film Moon, and I very much wanted to work with him, and we met and he said, 'I got this script, Source Code, [that] I think could be a good thing for us to collaborate on,' Jones told The Hollywood Reporter at a special screening of the film at NYC's Crosby Street Hotel Thursday. The film has received mixed reviews; read THR's here.

"So I read it, got very excited, and thought yeah, I could so something with this," added Jones. "The script just incredibly fast-paced -- it literally starts with a bang and goes 100 miles per hour. It’s just really fun." Watch the trailer.

A second read made him more excited to get on-board the Summit Entertainment film, which opened SXSW. "There were all sorts of challenges and puzzles and I kind of like solving puzzles, so it was kind of fun for me to work out how to achieve all these difficult things that were set up in the script by Ben Ripley," he said.

Working with Gyllenhaal (who plays a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and realizes he’s on a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train), Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga and Jeffrey Wright was "amazing" too, he said.

"In particular with Jake and Michelle, they have a great chemistry and they’re also a lot of fun, so it was amazing for me. They’re both also very brave actors," said Jones.

Especially Gyllenhaal, who injured his shoulder jumping off a train for a stunt.

"It's a weird sort of thing when you watch a stunt back on film and it works and it looks really awesome," Gyllenhaal told THR. "There's a moment where you say, 'Wow, that looked pretty good. Maybe I'll try and do something again. And if you enjoy the thrill of it, you want to do it again.

"I was scared maybe at first, but you get over that," he continued.

Monaghan called Gyllenhaal "such a pro. From a professional standpoint, he cares so much about the integrity of the script and the story. He puts his best foot forward every single day."

"And on a personal note, I had so much fun. He’s super nice, he’s fun, he’s charming, and he doesn’t take anything too seriously and that’s like ace in my book," she added. "I promise all the girls out there: He's a dream."