Dominique Deruddere Talks About Jamie

How did you come to cast ­Jamie Dornan – who was ­almost unknown at the time – in the lead role?

Dominique Deruddere: My casting directors in Britain had told me about him and ­several other actors. They sent me an uncut scene from this British TV series (The Fall) in which Jamie played a serial killer, so I saw him and thought he was obviously a very solid actor. I asked him to come over to ­Belgium to see if it would work with the couple of girls who had made it to the finals, so I could see how the couple could work. It turned out that Jamie and Charlotte De Bruyne (who plays Isabelle) were the ideal match.

Were you shocked when he then suddenly achieved ­international fame for 50 Shades of Grey?

Dominique Deruddere: Flying Home had finished ­filming already when he was offered 50 Shades. I remember reading in the newspaper that Jamie had been chosen to play the main guy, so I wrote him an email and made fun of him about it. All of a sudden he is now a world famous actor. I’m happy for him.

What’s Jamie’s character like in Flying Home?

Dominique Deruddere: He is a cynical banker who only thinks about money and has no respect for others. That changes when he comes to Belgium and meets regular people leading simple lives. He feels attracted to their lifestyle. And all the simplicity is symbolised in the pigeon, a bird that represents peace and love.

You can read the full interview here

Director Dominique Deruddere Talks About 'Flying Home' (aka 'Racing Hearts') and Jamie

Talks about Jamie at 7:40

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Director Dominique Deruddere Talks About Jamie and 'Racing Hearts' (aka 'Flying Home')

HuffingtonPost - If you can't wait to see Jamie Dornan in his secret room in the forthcoming 'Fifty Shades of Grey', you can catch him in romantic 'Racing Hearts', on home release from this Monday.

Jamie's director Dominique Deruddere, previously Oscar-nominated for 'Everybody's Famous', tells HuffPostUK that he gave this emerging star his first romantic lead role after Jamie visited him in Ghent, and the pair got drunk together.

"He was a total unknown when we were preparing," remembers Dominique. "My British casting director spotted him and told me he was going to be a big star. So I watched a scene from 'The Fall' and I was hooked. I realised this was a very strong personality. Then he came to visit me in Ghent, and we got hopelessly drunk together and hopelessly lost in the town somewhere."

Dominique is pretty chuffed that he was one of the first to spot a star in the making...

"I was really happy with his performance," he remembers. "He played that devil heart man with a soft voice. In one scene, he's listening to his dad telling a story in the attic, and he's a young kid again.

"When I heard he’d got that massive role, I opened up a bottle of champagne to celebrate for him."

Jamie plays Colin, a slick but unemotional Wall Street man, who finds himself in a rural outstop in Flanders, trying to secure a deal for a racing pigeon for a rich sheikh - strange but true. He's also, like a hero in many a fairytale, an outsider on a quest, who is changed forever by love. "I try to avoid realism," explains Dominique. "I refer to this as a parable, it's a nice way to tell a story, hopefully revealing some kind of universal truth."

This novel idea for a film came out of Dominique's own sense of homesickness when he was living and working in LA.

"I moved to LA seven years ago, and I was feeling a bit bored one afternoon," he remembers. "I looked into the sky and saw these racing pigeons, which reminded me of my youth.

"I thought, what are pigeons doing in LA?

"One of my neighbours was a pigeon fancier, he explained the international element, and slowly I thought of a sheikh wanting to have a racing pigeon"...

"So this is a film about love, but also someone being as homesick as me."

'Racing Hearts' is available on DVD from Monday 2 February.

NEW Deleted Scenes and Set Interview from Racing Hearts (aka Flying Home) Blu-Ray

Set Interview of Jamie

Deleted Scenes

 

'Racing Hearts' (aka 'Flying Home') UK DVD Cover + Release Date + Pre-Order Link

HQ

 

DVD Release Date: February 2, 2015

You can pre-order DVD on Amazon UK

New Trailer For 'Racing Hearts' (aka 'Flying Home')

MQ Screencaps

'Flying Home' DVD/Blu-Ray Will Be Released as 'Flying Love' in France

'Flying Home' aka 'Flying Love' DVD/Blu-Ray will be released on February 3, 2015 in France.

You can pre-order DVD and Blu-Ray on Amazon France

via

'Flying Home' DVD/Blu-Ray Will Be Released as 'Racing Hearts' in US + Release Date

From Blu-Ray.Com

Universal Studios Home Entertainment has announced the Blu-ray release of director Dominique Deruddere's Racing Hearts (originally titled Flying Home), which stars Jamie Dornan, Charlotte De Bruyne and Ali Suliman. The romantic drama arrives on Blu-ray on January 13, 2015.  

Flying Home tells the story of Colin (Dornan), an ambitious young American corporate raider, and Isabelle (De Bruyne), a young Flemish student (Charlotte De Bruyne). One of Colin's potential clients, a rich Arab sheikh (Ali Suliman), is a passionate pigeon fancier who has been trying to buy a champion pigeon "Wittekop" from Flanders, but the owner, Jos Pawels, has been stubbornly refusing his offers. In an attempt to gain the sheikh's business, Colin proposes a deal: if he can convince Jos Pauwels to sell the pigeon, then the sheikh will sign with his company.  

Colin sets off for Flanders, to the small village of Bunderzele, pretending to be teacher looking for the grave of his great-grandfather who died in World War I. Colin meets Isabelle, Jos Pauwels' lovely granddaughter, and uses her to accomplish his assignment. But Wittekop, the Flemish villagers and wonderful Isabelle confront him with the biggest question: what is really important in life?  

The Blu-ray release of Racing Hearts is presented in 1080p with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround. The USHE press materials suggest no special features are included. 

You can pre-order 'Racing Hearts' Blu-Ray on Blu-Ray.Com or on Amazon

'Flying Home' Will Be Screening at American Cinematheque Next Week

From Flying Home:

"Come to an exclusive screening Flying Home starring Jamie Dornan at the American Cinematheque next week screening on September 17th in Santa Monica! For more details, just follow this link: American Cinematheque"

'Flying Home' Director Dominique Deruddere Answers Our Questions About Jamie

Thanks to our friend Celine at Fifty Shades of Grey Fan we got a chance to ask 'Flying Home' director Dominiqe Deruddere two questions about Jamie and here is his answers:

What was it like working with Jamie? 

Dominique Deruddere: "It was very nice working with Jamie. He's a great guy and a very good actor." 

Did Jamie take lessons for his American accent? 

Dominique Deruddere: "I don't know if he took lessons. His US accent was very good right from the start."

And here is Celine's questions and Dominique Deruddere's answers:

Does Jamie like French fries? 

Dominique Deruddere: "Jamie loves French fries with mayonnaise." 

What beer Colin drinks in the movie? Is it Leffe? 

Dominique Deruddere: "The beer Jamie drank when his character was drunk was real. It's called Trappist Beer (Belgian beer)." 

'Flying Home' Will Be Screening at EUphoria European Film Festival in Los Angeles

Update (August 28th): Added more details about the second screening and Q&A

Consulate General of Belgium in Los Angeles:

"The website of the European Union Film Festival is now life! You can book your free tickets here: Www.EUphoriaFilmFest.com

Belgian film Flying Home in US premiere on Saturday September 20 at 8pm! 365 seats only, first come, first serve. Q&A with Oscar nominated Director Dominique Deruddere to follow!"

You can book your free tickets HERE

*Jamie won't attend the screening and Q&A.

'Flying Home' Has 4 Nominations at 2014 Ensor Flemish Film Awards

The jury of the 2014 edition of the Ensors for Flemish cinema, chaired by Bart de Pauw, a well-known Flemish media personality, actor, director and screenwriter, notably for Loft by Erik Van Looy, has just announced the nominations of this 5th edition.

2014 Ensors Nominations

Best actress

Evelien Bosmans (Marina)
Charlotte de Bruyne (Flying Home)
Kimke Desart (I’m the Same, I’m Another)

Best supporting actor

Josse De Pauw (Flying Home)
Johan Van Assche (The Treatment)
Koen De Bouw (Los Flamencos)

Best supporting actress

Viviane De Muynck (Flying Home)
Ingrid de Vos (The Treatment)
Brit Van Hoof (The Treatment)

Best costume

Catherine Marchand (Marina)
Loret Meus (Flying Home)
Tine Verbeurgt (The Verdict)

The winners will announced on September 20th.

Source

'Flying Home' Dutch DVD/Blu-Ray Release Date and Pre-Order Links

Update: Release date moved to August 22nd

Release Date: Augustus 22, 2014
Pre-Order: DVD and Blu-Ray
It's open to international shipping.

Via @JamieDornanJPN

New/Old Picture from 'Flying Home' Behind the Scenes

Source

The Hollywood Reporter's 'Flying Home' Review

THR - "Fifty Shades of Grey" lead Jamie Dornan stars in this romantic drama from Oscar-nominated Belgian director Dominique Deruddere.

A slick wolf of Wall Street finds himself in a grimy pigeon loft in rural Flanders in Flying Home, an English-language feature from Oscar-nominated Belgian director Dominique Deruddere.

A film that plays like a Lasse Hallstrom adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, except that neither Hallstrom nor Sparks were involved in any capacity, this classically confectioned melodrama is noteworthy mainly because it offers former Calvin Klein model and future Fifty Grades of Grey star Jamie Dornan his first romantic lead role, which should be enough to attract the interest of smart niche distributors who could time the film’s release to coincide with the avalanche of publicity that Dornan’s involvement in Grey is bound to generate. In its native Flanders, it made a tidy if not spectacular $500,000 when it was released last April.

Competitive pigeon racing in rural Belgium may sound like an unlikely background for a transatlantic, mostly English-language romance but Deruddere finds just the right angle to make it fly. Appropriately, the film opens high up in the clouds, in a private plane that carries Colin (Dornan), a Wall Street whiz kid, to a Middle Eastern emirate, where he'll to try to convince a sheik (Ali Suliman) to invest his billions in a fund run by Colin’s firm rather than that of a rival’s. The oil billionaire has already decided to go with the competition but, as Deruddere slyly suggests, a potentially lucrative business deal is much more important to Colin than sex with a nameless Barbie doll in his fancy, all-glass apartment overlooking a New York skyline (clearly added in post-production).

New info about Jamie's character from 'Flying Home' Press Kit + Director Dominique Deruddere talks about Jamie

From Flying Home press kit:

Characters | Cast
Colin | Jamie Dornan

Colin Montgommery has it all. He's young, rich, handsome, intelligent and successful. He lives in New York, ‘on top of the world’. He lives only for his work, has barely a social life, and is willing to go to great lengths to get what he wants. He is a ruthless businessman who does not deviate from his path until he ends up in Flanders, and there he discovers that there is more to life than money and power…

Dominique Deruddere: "The actor we wanted for the role of Colin had to be someone that would be able to portray in a believable way the reversal of a ruthless businessman, who encounters himself in Flanders Fields and questions his lifestyle. Via our British casting agent Kate Dowd, I received a lot of resumes and tapes sent by young actors who fitted the picture 'handsome and successful', but no one appeared to have that ‘second layer’, which is so necessary for the main character. Jamie had more than his 'pretty boy' look at first revealed. I was immediately interested and a scene from the yet unfinished 'The Fall', the series directed by Jakob Verbruggen was decisive to me. This young fashion model turned out to be a solid actor!

New/Old Picture of Jamie on the 'Flying Home' Set

Click for full size

@OmarBinHaider

Jamie's On Set Interview + New Scenes from 'Flying Home'

On set interview

'Flying Home' Posters, Stills and BTS Pictures

'Flying Home' Official Trailer + Screencaps

Screencaps