Mr & Mrs director Doug Liman returns with the adaptation of Steven Gould's science fiction novel Jumper boasting an impressive cast of Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, and Jamie Bell.
David (Christiansen) has inexplicably been given the power to teleport himself, or jump. He can jump into a bank vault, then to the top of the Sphinx, then back to his luxury Manhattan apartment.
But despite all his power, he still misses his childhood love, Millie (Bilson). When the opportunity arises, David jets off to Rome with Millie, but it's not all romance in the Italian city.
David's unique abilities place him in the middle of a war between the jumpers and the paladins, a secretive group intent on hunting down the teleporters.
Led by Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), the paladins track David and fellow jumper Griffin (Bell) across the world, and Millie may be caught in the crossfire.
Your director Doug Liman has called Jumper one of the greatest creative challenges of his career what challenges did it pose for you?
Hayden: I think Doug has really made efforts to challenge himself and do something new and original, and so encouraged his actors to try different things as well.
Every aspect of making this film felt really unique and innovative, from Doug’s approach to telling the story to taking a genre that people are really familiar with and trying to reinvent it.
For the visual effects we had the guys who created bullet time for The Matrix working on the movie, and they were developing technology for the film. So from every aspect it felt like we were doing something new.
Rachel: It was definitely an adventure, and with a director like that guiding you you really don’t know what you’re going to get. He’s so of the moment, which is actually wonderful.
The best part about it is you can really create as you go, which was an amazing experience. Especially for someone like me who has no experience whatsoever in a film anything close to this in genre.
There were lots of challenges but they were good ones even if the physical stuff is kind of uncomfortable at times. But the experience as a whole was a new journey, and I think because of Doug it makes it that much more special.
You visit many exotic locations in the film, what was the shortest time you spent in any of them?
Hayden: Doug’s approach to filmmaking in general is quite unique. He has a way of approaching his movies from big scale productions to literally showing up with the camera at my door and saying: ‘let’s go and film in Ann Arbor for the day,’ or let’s go walk round New York for the day,’ or ‘Paris for the day,’. We were in Paris for, I think, five hours.
Rachel: We weren’t supposed to shoot there, we were shooting in Rome and Doug said ‘okay we’re going to pop over on a plane,’ just to walk round the Eiffel Tower.
When we were flying to Rome we were sitting next to each other, and the second we woke up from this eight hour trip he was rolling the camera on me and that shot is now in the film. It doesn’t match continuity or anything, but you don’t notice because it’s pretty short. But that’s Doug.
Were the locations a big part of the appeal here?
Hayden: I really like to travel, so when I read the script and saw all the different locations we were going to cover I got excited. We spent a lot of time on planes, in transit but we were all over the place.
He was working a lot with this thing called a Red Camera. It’s really new technology and he shot a lot of the footage in the movie on that, which gave him the ability to have a crew of two or three people where we could just roam around the streets and shoot stuff.
It was funny at times because people would recognise me, or recognise Doug, working on what was clearly a very small scale operation. They might have thought it was a student film or something, so I look forward to those people going to the movie and seeing what we were actually doing.
How easy has it been to overcome the Anakin Skywalker role in Star Wars? And do you feel that you have?
Hayden: I don’t know, I don’t know if I have overcome it that’s for you guys to say. I think that’s something that will follow me for the rest of my life. There will always be people out the front of the hotel waiting with Star Wars pictures.
I had a great experience making those films and I’m very fond of everything that it’s brought. But I don’t think it’s ever something that will leave me, I think it’s with me forever.
Do you feel that appearing in those films has helped your career and opened more doors for you as an actor?
Hayden: I don’t think Doug really cast me off of Star Wars. He was more interested in Shattered Glass and that’s what he spoke to me about. There were certain aspects of my performance in that that he was interested in. But the Star Wars movies have opened a lot of doors for me and have given me the ability to be part of a movie like this.
And having established yourself on a series like The O.C. do you feel you have to escape the long shadow it cast?
Rachel: The tv series has brought me everything that I have gotten thus far which is amazing, I’m so grateful for it. It’s harder I think when you’re known for a tv series as a character, because people really feel like they know you.
So, it’s been important to me to break away from that as much as possible and go against the obvious typecast roles. I’ve been lucky, even though I’ve only done two films since leaving the series they’ve been so different.
Jumper looks physical is that you up there a lot of the time? And did you sustain many injuries?
Hayden: It was a physical part and my character takes a beating so I got knocked around quite a bit. But I didn’t mind. I enjoy the physicality of acting and I like action movies, so I was game to do as much of it as possible, they obviously don’t let you do all of it because they won’t let you kill yourself, but I tried to do as much as possible.
I got a nice scar across my hand, I split my ear open, I knocked my head really badly in this one scene and my pupil got stuck in this extremely dilated position which was really disturbing because I couldn’t see. Bumps and bruises, we kept a list of injuries sustained and it got pretty long by the end of the movie.
Rachel, were you injury free?
Rachel: Pretty much, I had bruises and scratches but I was more proud of them, showing them off for doing the action stuff, but it was nothing too severe at all.
You’re whisked off to Rome on a date in the movie, what would your own idea of a perfect date be?
Rachel: I think being whisked away to Rome is always impressive, but I think it depends on the person taking you. If it’s a guy you don’t know that well who says ‘let’s go to Rome!’ and he’s trying to be all suave I don’t think it’s that impressive. But if you know someone and they take you there then I think that would be pretty ideal.
I am a fan of Italy and Rome in particular, so I share that in common with Millie. I’ve had some nice dates in my time but I couldn’t really pick one. I like to stay at home and snuggle on the couch, it sounds boring but that would be ideal.
Hayden: What kind of date do I enjoy? I’m partial to the couch as well.
Did you do any research on teleportation to prepare for the role?
Hayden: I didn’t do a lot of research on the actual science of teleportation when we started, I didn’t really feel like that was going to inform my performance.
But having spent a lot of time thinking about it I got really interested, and Doug and I got to go to MIT and sit on this panel with two professors who were experts in quantum teleportation, which is a form of teleportation that actually exists.
In a very limited context they’ve managed to teleport a photon, a particle of light, over a distance of a couple of kilometres which is pretty amazing.
They spoke very intelligently I wish I could do the same about the actual science of it, it was very impressive and it got me excited. So I’m really interested in it now.
If you had a superpower what would it be?
Hayden: I might go for teleportation. Honestly, just the practicality of it is really appealing to me to not have to sit on planes and be stuck in traffic and all the things that get under my skin. To just be anywhere whenever you wanted, that would definitely be my superpower.
Rachel: I’d have to agree. After experiencing it you just realise you wouldn’t have to be on a plane for 11 hours, you could go all over the world and just jump away from people you really don’t want to meet. That would be pretty ideal.
Do you know anything about a sequel and would you be open to it?
Hayden: Don’t know too much about it, but I’d be very open to it. I would love to do it actually. I had a lot of fun on this movie and I think there’s a lot of fun to be had with the concept of teleportation. There’s lots you can do with it.
Speaking with the scientists, they explained about all of the possibilities and I think that got Doug excited. He said in a press conference in Rome that he already had the next four stories planned out in his head, so we’ll see.
Finally, who would win in a celebrity death match between Anakin Skywalker and David Rice?
Hayden: I don’t think the fight would ever take place because David would just jump away. As soon as Anakin makes a move on him he teleports somewhere.
I don’t know, Anakin’s got the light sabre, so he might win, although I’m telling you it would never take place because David’s not really one for conflict, he usually avoids that sort of thing.
Rachel: Darth Vader is the most bad, iconic villain. I think the villain is always going to win over the good guy. I don’t know. I feel weird because both of them are sitting right next to me.
Jumper is out on DVD 16th June
Mr & Mrs director Doug Liman returns with the adaptation of Steven Gould's science fiction novel Jumper boasting an impressive cast of Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Rachel Bilson, and Jamie Bell.
David (Christiansen) has inexplicably been given the power to teleport himself, or jump. He can jump into a bank vault, then to the top of the Sphinx, then back to his luxury Manhattan apartment.
But despite all his power, he still misses his childhood love, Millie (Bilson). When the opportunity arises, David jets off to Rome with Millie, but it's not all romance in the Italian city.
David's unique abilities place him in the middle of a war between the jumpers and the paladins, a secretive group intent on hunting down the teleporters.
Led by Roland (Samuel L. Jackson), the paladins track David and fellow jumper Griffin (Bell) across the world, and Millie may be caught in the crossfire.
Your director Doug Liman has called Jumper one of the greatest creative challenges of his career what challenges did it pose for you?
Hayden: I think Doug has really made efforts to challenge himself and do something new and original, and so encouraged his actors to try different things as well.
Every aspect of making this film felt really unique and innovative, from Doug’s approach to telling the story to taking a genre that people are really familiar with and trying to reinvent it.
For the visual effects we had the guys who created bullet time for The Matrix working on the movie, and they were developing technology for the film. So from every aspect it felt like we were doing something new.
Rachel: It was definitely an adventure, and with a director like that guiding you you really don’t know what you’re going to get. He’s so of the moment, which is actually wonderful.
The best part about it is you can really create as you go, which was an amazing experience. Especially for someone like me who has no experience whatsoever in a film anything close to this in genre.
There were lots of challenges but they were good ones even if the physical stuff is kind of uncomfortable at times. But the experience as a whole was a new journey, and I think because of Doug it makes it that much more special.
You visit many exotic locations in the film, what was the shortest time you spent in any of them?
Hayden: Doug’s approach to filmmaking in general is quite unique. He has a way of approaching his movies from big scale productions to literally showing up with the camera at my door and saying: ‘let’s go and film in Ann Arbor for the day,’ or let’s go walk round New York for the day,’ or ‘Paris for the day,’. We were in Paris for, I think, five hours.
Rachel: We weren’t supposed to shoot there, we were shooting in Rome and Doug said ‘okay we’re going to pop over on a plane,’ just to walk round the Eiffel Tower.
When we were flying to Rome we were sitting next to each other, and the second we woke up from this eight hour trip he was rolling the camera on me and that shot is now in the film. It doesn’t match continuity or anything, but you don’t notice because it’s pretty short. But that’s Doug.
Were the locations a big part of the appeal here?
Hayden: I really like to travel, so when I read the script and saw all the different locations we were going to cover I got excited. We spent a lot of time on planes, in transit but we were all over the place.
He was working a lot with this thing called a Red Camera. It’s really new technology and he shot a lot of the footage in the movie on that, which gave him the ability to have a crew of two or three people where we could just roam around the streets and shoot stuff.
It was funny at times because people would recognise me, or recognise Doug, working on what was clearly a very small scale operation. They might have thought it was a student film or something, so I look forward to those people going to the movie and seeing what we were actually doing.
How easy has it been to overcome the Anakin Skywalker role in Star Wars? And do you feel that you have?
Hayden: I don’t know, I don’t know if I have overcome it that’s for you guys to say. I think that’s something that will follow me for the rest of my life. There will always be people out the front of the hotel waiting with Star Wars pictures.