Director Doug Liman Talks Time Travel, Intergalactic Plot For Jumper 2
Word of mouth on Jumper isn't too positive, but the general consensus is that the premise still kinda rocks. Moreover, the image above is worth a hundred sci-fi strike-outs like Next, and hey, it's not a remake. But the film, which opened to $38 million over the long weekend, has long been keyed in as the first in a so-trendy trilogy, and now director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Swingers) has discussed a sequel with Collider's Frosty in a super-caffeinated interview. The possibilities for Jumper 2 would seem boundless, from time travel to extraterrestrial teleporting to career longevity for Rachel Bilson.
"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."
What follows is a spoiler-ish quote from Liman, so I'm going to, er, jump it. But I have to say that unlike a flick like The Chronicles of Riddick, I hope this entire vision is seen through. He also discussed his (possibly 3D?) to-the-moon project with Jake Gyllenhaal, and his Valerie Plame biopic so just cruise through Spoilerville for that.
"...Rachel Bilson's character learns how to teleport in the 2nd book...In this case [the teleportation powers] are taught and it's, you know, one of the things that may sort of…things we toyed with on this movie is do we actually need to do the obligatory rule scene, where you lay out everything the power can and 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 aren't ultimately…don't factor into the finale..."
"Well, you know the kind of jumping that we're showing in the movie which is a kind of worm hole jump which is why those scars are left behind, if you can travel through space through a worm hole from a scientific Einstein point of view, you could also travel through time. So you know that's not quantum teleportation which is featured in the film, so I'm very specific to show those scars and to show that you're leaving a worm hole and in fact that's what Rachel Bilson gets pulled through in the end, so it's….I've left myself open…I've left the door open to time travel because of the specific kind of teleportation that I chose to portray in this film."
End spoiler.
Either way, it seems that Jumper 2 will not be next for Liman, who's prepping two projects: the Untitled Valerie Plame Biopic starring Nicole Kidman, which Liman curiously says would be the "most radical and revolutionary move of my career," calling his take on the material "art"; and his 2009 Untitled Moon Project with Jake Gyllenhaal.
"One of them is with Jake Gyllenhaal about a private expedition to go to the moon present day. And I think when the United States of America put a man on the moon in 1969 that was one of the greatest accomplishments mankind has ever done. And rather than tell that as a historic movie I was like can I make this relevant to a modern audience, can I have modern characters today follow the blueprint of Apollo and re-create the Apollo mission today using parts stolen from the Smithsonian Museum."
He goes on to say he might "throw in some 3D for the hell of it" on that project or a future one.
Discuss: How impressed were you with Liman's Jumper, and do you hope his sequel talk becomes realized?