That wacky Doug Liman. If you remember the torturous shoot that Mr And Mrs Smith endured on the way to the big screen, you won’t exactly be surprised to learn that his follow-up, sci-fi teleportation thriller Jumper, is suffering similar struggles.
Fortunately this time, it seems to be happening before a frame is shot. You see, Jumper was supposed to go before cameras earlier in the summer, but Liman – and Smith writer Simon Kinberg, who retooled David Goyer’s first draft – have been making some changes. Tom Sturridge, who’d been cast in the lead role as David, a young man from a troubled home using his teleportation powers to search for this mother’s killer, was ditched.
Fast-forward to last month’s Comic-Con and the loose lips of one Samuel L Jackson (who’s also starring) revealed that his Revenge Of The Sith co-star would be taking on the lead. Christensen will play David, while Jackson appears as an National Security agent who wants to find him so the government can exploit his talents. David has an ally in Jamie Bell, a fellow “jumper”, who helps him out.
With luck, Jumper will be ready to finally crank into production next month, with 20th Century Fox’s plans for a trilogy riding on its shoulders. No pressure, then.