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Jumper Director Talks About Ideas for a Sequel
by Alex Billington
February 18, 2008
Source: Collider
With Jumper well on its way to pass $40 million this week, if it continues at that rate, we could definitely see a sequel in the works. Without spoiling too much, the ending is certainly left open for a sequel, but it's not a requirement. With the power that the lead character David Rice has, the possibilities are nearly endless for what he could do next. One of the few that has popped up is time travel. The movie is actually based off of a series of books by Steven Gould, but only the story from one of them was used to tell the story in the first movie. Now director Doug Liman talks about some of the possibilities that could be seen in a sequel.
While not exactly the greatest sci-fi movie ever, Jumper is a solid film that is purely entertaining. If you're a sci-fi nut you can't help but watch it and consider the great number of other stories that could be told about jumpers with that much power. Doug Liman was interviewed over at Collider and he talks about what he could work into a sequel, whether it's time travel or another twist regarding the movie's other lead character Millie.
I actually have a ton of ideas for the sequel because this is whole new arena for me and so my mind was in overdrive the whole time and most of the ideas I came up with we either could tease or just save it for a sequel and so it's… this power can be used to leave this planet, this power can be used ultimately to go back in time, this power can be used if you go and work for the government you'd be the ultimate Jason Bourne.
How coincidental he mentions Jason Bourne, as Liman was the director who first introduced us to the character in The Bourne Identity. Liman also goes on to talk about a major spoiler that's part of the second book, so if you're curious to hear it and read on, consider yourself warned. "I guess people will read the 2nd book so they'll know, but Rachel Bilson's character learns how to teleport in the 2nd book." Liman explains that in this situation, people can learn the power, but with what was present in the movie, most will be thinking, that's not possible. He explains that in this first movie, they never really had that scene which lays the groundwork for the rules of the power and what it can or can't do.
We ultimately decided to say we're changing so many other sort of aspects of this genre like let's not do the rule scene because the rules don't ultimately…the limitations of this power ultimately don't factor into the finale, so we skipped the obligatory rules thing and also because this film is set in the real world and David Rice is not a physicist. He is not going to understand why he can teleport. He will never understand that, you know, different movie if you've got an MIT quantum physicist who discovers they can teleport. That guy will spend the movie conducting experiments on himself to understand it and understand how it's happening and what his limitations are. David Rice—not going to understand his ability to teleport the way Jason Bourne will never understand his amnesia.
Although Jumper wasn't extraordinary, some of these ideas would be very interesting to see in a sequel. I'm wondering if they got a new cast (throw out Hayden Christensen!) and some new screenwriters, could they whip up a story that goes to the extremes beyond this first one? Then create something like Terminator 2 where it's on a whole different level and becomes a whole different movie? Either way, the possibilities really are endless and it's unfortunate that the concept in Jumper wasn't explored further. I'm almost hoping to see a sequel just so we can see more of these ideas put to use.
9 Comments
1
I hope they will make a sequel but i have a bad feeling they won't since the budget is 85 million and it did around 38 million in 5 days. Overseas it is kicking major ass and will do $150-170 million. Oh well i don't like sequels if the original star cast isn't back but if they are doing a totally separate flick with no connection to the first one then ya they can change some actors. The new hulk movie starts where the last one ended but has a completely new star cast.
Jojo on Feb 18, 2008
2
Get rid of Hayden Christensen i swear to god if they cast him in the next movie, its just not gonna live up to its potential, he just cannot act what so ever. He ruined the movie for me. I loved the concept of the movie and the story was pretty tight with the Paladins and Jumpers, but the main character casting was a terrible mistake with Hayden being as bad as he is and Rachel Bilson being only mediocre, the rest of the cast was great and made the story believable. This movie had a lot of potential and a cool concept but falls because the lack of acting, hope the 2nd one is different.
Curtis on Feb 18, 2008
3
Jamie Bell was terrific in it, so Id like him to be the lead in the next but I dont think he would do it for fear of being typecast. Especially since Jumper wasnt that good. Perhaps if a better script is written and if Liman gets back to his story-telling roots like he did in The Bourne Identity, then the sequel will be good. I think Jumper was a very confused film in that it tried to make you feel every single motion, and failed for the most part. If it would have been more serious then I could see this having been great. I think the blame falls squarely on the script and Liman. If these two things were corrected and the acting was still mediocre, then I would blame it on Hayden, and maybe Rachel.
Keith on Feb 18, 2008
4
i saw this movie yesterday and thought the acting wasn't too bad. hayden could have done better. but all i can think about when i see him on screen is anakin skywalker...and he didn't do a great job at that one either. i'm a bilson fan, so i might be bias when i say this, but i think she played her character well. haha. Jackson did ok...i think some one else could have done better. for me, i think his best role was mace windu. i think an angered samual l. jackson just doesn't work on screen. i think my favorite character was Griffin. agreeing with Keith, "Jamie Bell was terrific in it". so if him or bislon was to be the main character of the sequel, i'd be there opening night. but if hayden does the sequel, i might just catch it on dvd if i don't randomly go see it first.
crAziemutant on Feb 19, 2008
5
The filming style of Jumper made me feel like i myself was jumping around... very cool. Christensen's lines were as short as possible as well, which made his performance as good as it could be.
patrick on Feb 19, 2008
6
anyone read the book?
victor on Feb 19, 2008
7
Maybe Doug Liman should hand over the sequel reins to Paul Greengrass. Greengrass and his jittery camera style might suit the Jumper world, too 🙂
avoidz on Feb 19, 2008
8
Jumper as a novel was way better than the movie. I liked that he stopped terrorism and that his mom wasn't an evil witch even if she had to die. I hate the paladin idea and much rather the way the book went, so I'd definitely like to see the original story as a movie. By the way I loved Hayden Christiansen.
Lindsey on Nov 14, 2008
9
Also, there are no other jumpers and i think that has better potential for a longer storyline than this whole following other jumpers and killing paladins.
Lindsey on Nov 14, 2008
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