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Jumper
Interview with director, Doug Liman
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Pedigree: Lucas, Spielberg, Ford, and the classiest cast and crew of 2008. Estimated budget: $125 million. Predicted box office: $400 million (US gross),$1 billion (worldwide).
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I've realised that I like anti-heroes," says Doug Liman. When you actually consider his CV up to this point, it seems like rather an obvious statement. He's the man who first brought Jason Bourne - "not a saint by any means" - onto the screen and, in Mr. & Mrs. Smith, "two cold-blooded killers who express no remorse". Having this epiphany on the set of a sci-fi actioner that he describes as his "first superhero movie", however, may not have been the best time. "I feel a little bit of an idiot for not realising it sooner."
Action movies, and particularly superhero movies, like to have their good guys and their bad guys. Jumper, when described in basic terms, appears to have both. Based on Steven Gould's novel, it's the story of David Rice (Hayden Christensen), a young man who discovers he has the ability to teleport - or jump - and sets about trying to find the person responsible for the death of his mother. But on his tail is a government agent (Samuel L. Jackson) who believes jumpers are too dangerous to live, particularly the wily one who's evaded him for years (Jamie Bell), whom David has befriended. We've all seen movies. We know government agents are evil and kids with dead parents are good. This is law. Not for Liman.
"There are two sides to any story; they both have their reasons for doing what they're doing," says the director. "It occurred to me while developing the script, 'Why does the person you're following have to be the hero?' Actually, in my conversations with Fox, who are releasing the movie, there's a scene we've been debating where Sam Jackson's character has a very sympathetic moment with his kid. The usual reaction is, 'He's the villain of the movie, so you can't show him having cotton candy with his kid.' But I figured a Doug Liman movie is a movie where the villain could be doing that."
Doug Liman movies are famous for at least one other thing: 'troubled' shoots. Jumper has not been without the same rumours that blighted The Bourne Identity and Mr. & Mrs. Smith, i. e. the director was indulging himself and had no idea what he wanted. Liman first joined Jumper in 2005 and the almost three years since have seen numerous rewrites, a recasting of the leading man and a jump from one production company to another. But Liman considers these steps towards making something great, rather than hacking something out.
"It was certainly true that there was trouble on Bourne, because I was the only one who believed in the movie," admits the director. "There was actually an argument I had with the head of Universal at the time and she said, 'This isn't your film school. You don't get to run around and try your ideas out.' She was wrong. That's the way you get something original."
Much of the film's gestation has been in developing the script, which Liman says originally needed a great deal of work. It was these changes that led to the recasting of David, which removed teenage Brit actor Tom Sturridge and brought in Hayden Christensen, Liman having seen him in 2003 indie Shattered Glass. "Originally David was 17 and this was a very small movie - a superhero movie, but under the radar," says Liman. "Then Tom Rothman, who runs Fox, said to me, 'This film would be more interesting if you made David older.' And he's right. It never occurred to me, but seeing a love story between two 25 year-olds (Christensen and The OC starlet Rachel Bilson), with all their baggage, is much more interesting than two teenagers. Everything he's going through is more interesting older." So the film shut down production for rewrites and recasting and started shooting in August 2006. Any delay since then has been down to the numerous effects involved, in the jumping process especially.
"Nothing prepared me for the work that comes with doing real effects," Liman sighs. "It's, like, two hours on the phone to Weta every day. But it's an amazing new toy for me to play with. It's this whole other exciting film school for me."
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