Liman did it once more with “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” which was an enormous hit, irrespective of the anxieties he induced the studio. In that L.A. Occasions piece, Liman didn’t take too kindly to being instructed that Goldsman had referred to as him a madman, though he did admit, “I’m an uncommon individual … [but] the film I find yourself with is the film I aspired to make.”
Hollywood loves tales of administrators betting large after which hitting the jackpot, which is why a part of the lore round “Titanic” and “Avatar” is how dangerous these James Cameron films appeared earlier than they turned phenomena. However that thrilling, feel-good narrative fades shortly if the filmmaker isn’t in a position to maintain pulling rabbits out of his hat. That’s what occurred to Liman after “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” when he signed on for the sci-fi motion flick “Jumper,” which was meant to arrange a trilogy. Starring Hayden Christensen, Rachel Bilson and Samuel L. Jackson—and proudly marketed as “From the director of ‘The Bourne Identification’ and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’”—the movie, a couple of younger man who discovers he has the ability to teleport himself, was solely a modest hit, inadequate to start out a franchise. The opinions had been horrible, with many specializing in Christensen’s awkward efficiency, however years later, Liman additionally put the blame on himself.
“Once I was making ‘Jumper,’ I stated that my model of a superhero movie could be that the individual doesn’t develop into a superhero,” he recalled in a 2018 interview. “They’ve a superpower, however they use the ability to save lots of themselves, on the finish of the film, and to not save the damsel in misery. I assumed that might be attention-grabbing, in the identical approach ‘The Bourne Identification’ took what was within the spy style, and simply threw it out the window. After which, you find yourself in these moments, the place you paint your self right into a nook and it’s laborious to get out of since you begin to notice that these clichés exist as a result of they work, and also you’ve deliberately minimize off a identified factor that works to do one thing experimental. Within the case of ‘The Bourne Identification,’ it labored out, and in most of my movies, it’s labored out.”
As was turning into frequent, when Liman was engaged on “Jumper,” there have been tales a couple of tense shoot. (As well as, Christensen sustained severe accidents and, tragically, set dresser David Ritchie died throughout an on-set accident.) Within the midst of manufacturing, Liman spoke to Empire, insisting that rumors about him being troublesome had been merely a byproduct of staying true to his imaginative and prescient. “I bear in mind an argument that I had with the pinnacle of Common [when making ‘The Bourne Identity’],” he recalled, “and she or he stated, ‘This isn’t your movie college. You don’t get to run round and check out concepts out. This isn’t your movie college.’ She was mistaken. That’s the way in which you get one thing unique. You don’t need to fall again on one thing another person has executed. Then you definitely’re a hack.”
