About two weeks ago there was a fascinating feature in New York magazine with Doug Liman – the director of “Swingers,” “Go,” the inaugural ‘Bourne’ installment, “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (underrated) and the upcoming teleportation flick, “Jumper” (more on that later). Kudos to NY mag, this is how profile pieces should be written. It’s infinitely interesting and perhaps it didn’t hurt that Liman is such an odd duck and has such a great story.
First off, Liman – a rich brat – always lived in the shadow of his father, a legendary do-gooding attorney, who was never comfortable with his son’s chosen vocation. Then there’s the director himself, a maverick with little people skills and odd traits including a slight lisp and adult braces. ‘Bourne Identity’ star Franka Potente, said Liman never once looked her in the eyes on the set of the action movie (a unnerving trait he is known for). And as a director – the man who’s supposed to be in charge – Liman was notorious for changing his mind multiple times and never saying no to anyone on set (but then changing it if he didn’t like it later). “I wrote 40 or 50 totally different [Bourne] endings.” “Mr. and Mrs. Smith,” screenwriter Simon Kinbergtold the magazine although Liman eventually chose the first one he wrote.
“Limania” was the phrase coined for the director haphazard way of making films, changing and writing the script as he went, inventing, tossing out and retooling in a disorganized manner – a process so messy it made the suits extremely nervous and eventually got him permanently kicked off the ‘Bourne’ series – a franchise that was his baby to begin with. “Bourne was overly chaotic; we went into production with a script that was just a mess,” said ‘Bourne’ editor Saar Klein. Klein eventually became friends with the director and is now editing Jumper, but he found himself hating Liman during ‘Bourne.’
To the studio, and Stacey Snider, the head of Universal when Bourne was being made, Liman’s process seemed costly, unorganized, and, worse, immature, with some justification—one night he paid the crew overtime to light a forest so he could play paintball. “Universal hated me,” says Liman. “I had an archenemy in the studio. They were trying to shut me down. The producers were bad guys.”
Communication got so bad that eventually Matt Damon had to be the conduit to the studio.“I would be his surrogate because at least I could be heard,” Damon said. A last-minute re-shoot that Liman did against Universal’s specific wishes was the final straw and got him permanetly axed from the project (ironically Snider is producing ‘Jumper’; time heals all wounds in Hollywood).
Before he could be relegated to director jail however (where your reputation freezes you out, see Tony Kaye for an example), Brad Pitt rescued him, insisting Liman direct “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (Pitt was originally cast as Jason Bourne).
Throughout the interview, there’s an interesting paradox between Liman’s commercial creative endeavors and the pull towards his father’s influence and “more serious subject matter,” but it looks like it’s all talk as Liman’s next vehicle is another big-budget project based on a script he wrote ten years ago with his cousin John Hamburg about a private expedition to the moon.
His contradictory nature comes out when describing the film, one that he says has loftier ambitions, but will also have escapist and grand commercial expectations. “It’s not part of the sellout. Its aspirations are loftier. When I wrote it, it was a frivolous movie. Now the planet is in crisis. It’s wrestling with the dominant social issue facing us today, overpopulation.” A moment later he’s changing his tune. “All this talking about [worthy stuff],” he says, “it goes out the window when I have a story I want to tell.”
“’Jumper’ completes my sellout trilogy,” (he’s counts ‘The Bourne Identity’ and his next film, ‘Mr. and Mrs. Smith’) Liman said. The film is about: A genetic anomaly allows a young man (Hayden Christensen) to teleport himself anywhere. He discovers this gift has existed for centuries and finds himself in a war that has been raging for thousands of years between “Jumpers” (Jamie Bell) and those who have sworn to kill them (Samuel L. Jackson and co.). It sounds pretty ridiculous actually.
ComingSoon has six clips from the film. John Powell scored “Jumper” and the orchestral score CD is due February 12 via Lakeshore records. The film itself is due in theaters February 14.
Watch: “Jumper” trailer