Brokeback Mountain of Focus Features, James Schamus to ask if the film was ever made. Ang Lee was considering retirement after "Hulk". In an interview with "Out" magazine, he described himself "wrecked" after filming both "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Hulk". "Brokeback Mountain" "nurtured" him back into filmmaking. The casting of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal was announced in 2003. Anne Hathaway stated that during her audition, she lied to Ang Lee about her knowledge of horse riding so that he would cast her. Subsequently, she took horse-riding lessons for two months. While the film is set in Wyoming (like the original
Jake Gyllenhaal Jake Gyllenhaal Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. A member of the Gyllenhaal family and the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, Gyllenhaal began acting as a child with a screen debut in "City Slickers" (1991), followed by roles in "A Dangerous Woman" (1993) and "Homegrown" (1998). His breakthrough performance was as Homer Hickam in "October Sky" (1999) and he garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Male Lead for playing the title character in the indie cult hit "Donnie Darko" (2001), in which he played a psychologically troubled teenager