For Doug Liman, establishing the complexity of JUMPER's characters and the veracity of Jumping motion itself was just the start. Next, he would focus on creating a completely enveloping, trans-national world for JUMPER that would be at once based in reality yet filled with the fantastic possibilities of humans who can manipulate the space-time fabric to go anywhere, any time.
From the start, the filmmakers knew the production would be a major logistical challenge -- since it literally jumps around the world. But Liman had done so before, with the globe-hopping espionage thriller The Bourne Identity, and knew that part of the key to making the story feel dynamically alive would be using authentic locations. Thus it was that the production itself leapt from Toronto to Rome, from Tokyo to New York, Mexico and Ann Arbor, with a second unit filming in London, Paris and Egypt.
"We went all over the world in order to make this movie feel and be real," says Simon Kinberg. "What's so great about the idea of being a teleporter is that you can go anywhere in the blink of an eye and we decided early on that it was important to have our characters interact in cities and places in the world that people recognize. We certainly created a lot of visual effects and computer-generated images to enhance the action, but the real magic of the film comes from the true locations."
Kinberg also notes that these authentic locations will be seen in ways they haven't been seen before. "We're not doing the National Geographic or guidebook version of a world tour," he points out. "This is a power version of the world tour -- it's about total wish fulfillment, about being 25 years-old and what you would do if you believed you had no limits or consequences."
To create this real but dream-laden world, Liman surrounded himself with a crack team of technical artists to bring his fluid and ever-changing vision to life. He brought in cinematographer Barry Peterson, who'd brought a joyful kinetic quality to the action-comedy of Starsky & Hutch. Also, very early on, he began working closely with production designer Oliver Scholl, whose work has often been about bringing original worlds to life on screen. He recently served as the production designer on The Time Machine, was a conceptual designer on Stargate and did illustrations for Batman Forever.
Scholl couldn't have been more excited than to tackle a project like JUMPER. "I'm a total science fiction fan, so being asked to do a movie about teleportation was a gift, because the possibilities are endless," says Scholl. "I thought to myself, I'm going to have a lot of fun."
Although Scholl would be working in many amazing historical locations, he also would have to replicate those same locations on soundstage sets, in order to play with their physics to accommodate the Jumpers. "For example, we needed to use a lot of foam walls to rig the stunts, but obviously you can't do that in a place like the Colloseum!" he notes. "So a lot of the initial work was determining what locations we would go to and what we would have to build."
The scenes in the Colosseum were originally written to take place in the Pantheon and it was Scholl's idea to move them into the 2,000 year-old, iconic amphitheatre in the center of Rome that once housed the gory spectacle of gladiator battles with hungry lions. The notion of this building where the memory of sweat, blood and fear is still embedded in the very walls appealed to everyone's vision for the film -- but it seemed like a pipe dream. Everyone knew the Italian government hadn't opened the doors of the precious monument to any motion picture crews, let alone an action-thriller, in decades.
Amazingly, Lucas Foster's tenacious perseverance paid off when the production was granted three days of unprecedented access to film not only in the Colosseum proper, but also in the labyrinth of the amphitheater, an area completely off limits to the public. "In the end, it came down to charm, endurance and winning their respect, and they opened their doors to us," says Foster.
Nevertheless, the filmmakers were presented with strict rules for shooting in the fragile, ancient structure. They could only shoot between dawn and 8:15 a.m. and again from 3:30pm until dusk; they could rest no equipment of any kind on the hallowed ground of the precious antiquity; and the only lighting allowed was natural sunlight. "We were really challenged to come up with innovative ways to film -- we had the crew carrying all our equipment around on their backs,." he recalls.
But the sacrifices were worth it, as no set could have been more awe-inspiring. "The Colosseum was probably the most inspiring -- and most stressful -- environment I've ever filmed in," comments Liman. "It forced us to be super-organized; you had to get it right the first time because you knew you could never go back. This flew contrary to my style of filmmaking -- I like to shoot and reshoot. But to be in a location like that allowed me to ground the film, and give it an honesty that you wouldn't normally see in a special effects movie."
The cast was equally inspired by the history-drenched environs. "To be down there in the bowels of the Colosseum where they kept the gladiators and the lions and the public doesn't even have access was really amazing," says Hayden Christensen. "Your imagination goes wild and, really, it is up there with the coolest things I've even done. As an actor, it helps a lot to have that kind of actual interaction with a world that you can believe in."
Scholl would then painstakingly recreate entire swaths of the Colosseum on a 6,000 square foot soundstage set in Toronto. He did so by first extensively exploring and photographing the real thing, and measuring everything right down to the bricks in the wall. He then replicated much of the structure's labyrinthine level including the lower gladiator rooms, grotto and underground corridors. A stickler for detail, Scholl even duplicated the type of scaffolding currently being used in the ongoing restoration of the spectacular edifice. "With our set, we tried to create something as visually dramatic as the real thing but that could serve as a playground for the stunts and action sequences," he explains.
Scholl's success was vital in Doug Liman's view. "It was important to me that the audience, and even the crew members, ultimately not be able to tell what was shot in the real Colosseum and what was shot on the replicated set," he says.
In addition to the Colosseum, Scholl especially enjoyed creating both David's sprawling, penthouse apartment in Manhattan and Griffin's well-hidden Egyptian lair. David's apartment, says Scholl, "reflects a time when he feels he's at the top of the world, so we created it with big windows overlooking New York to convey that feeling. It's also very clean and cold, because even though it's where David is living right now, it's not truly a place he feels is his home."
By contrast, Griffin's lair, founding in a remote Saharan cave, is as wild and erratic as he is. "Griffin's lair was really fun place to create -- and it also had to be fireproofed to accommodate the flamethrower fight that takes place there," notes Scholl.
Scholl also constructed on the Toronto stage such interiors as Millie's apartment, the Ann Arbor Public Library and David's childhood home. But much of the work Scholl did was with far-flung locations. In Italy, the authentic locations included the Piazza del Colosseo and the Arch of Constantine, where cast and crew had to brave huge crowds of tourists. Filming also took place in the Piazza della Rotonda where the Pantheon serves as the backdrop to David and Millie's romantic interlude at a trattoria; the Exedra Hotel in the Piazza della Repubblica; and the Fiumicino Airport.
In New York, the production filmed on the Observation Desk of the Empire State Building, in Central Park, at Port Authority and in Times Square. Then it was off to Tokyo where, amidst the blinding neon and urban chaos, the production took advantage of locations ranging from a noodle shop in a claustrophobic alleyway in Shimbashi to Shibuya's Hachiko Square where, while walking through a seven-intersection crossing -- renowned as the world's busiest -- David convinces Griffin to join forces in the fight against the Paladins. Also in Tokyo, Barry Peterson went to town shooting the Rainbow Bridge, a stunning suspension bridge with views of the Tokyo Harbor, Tokyo Tower and Tokyo Bay, offering a stunningly panoramic vantage point from which David and Griffin keep watch for Paladins One of the most thrilling scenes in Tokyo takes place in a Ginza Mercedes dealership when Griffin jumps a Mercedes SL65 AMG through the window of the dealership and takes David on a wild ride through Tokyo. Director of photography Barry Peterson utilized a number of different rigging techniques that allowed placement of up to three cameras on the car, and used techno cranes to track the car and the action as Griffin and David flew through the neon-lit streets of Shibuya, Shinjuku and Shimbashi. Says stunt coordinator Simon Crane: "This was a really exciting scene to shoot because it's every kid's dream to drive a car like this without any rules. We had a chance to show the full potential of these vehicles."
Another thrilling location was one of Tokyo's cyclotron facilities -- where particle accelerators are used in cutting-edge physics research -- which provided the perfect atmosphere for the secret facility where the Paladins conduct research on ways to stop Jumpers around the world.
Back in the U.S., the suspenseful opening sequence where David falls through the ice was filmed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, while the subsequent underwater shots were accomplished at Fox Baja Studios in Rosarito, B.C., Mexico.
Meanwhile, the film's French costume designer Magali Guidasci, best known for her work with visually innovative director Luc Besson, also jumped from culture to culture, creating a wide variety of international clothing while emphasizing an elegant feeling to the film. She and cinematographer Peterson worked in a palette that emphasizes many shades of grey with pop flashes of color. "It was important to stay very simple and understated to keep things focused on the visual excitement of teleportation," Guidasci notes.
This was especially true in her designs for Hayden Christensen as David Rice, which are sleek and classical. "I wanted to keep a timeless silhouette for David, iconic yet simple, with a coat, white shirt and pair of jeans," she says. "He has the look of someone who went into a very expensive store and just bought the first thing he saw -- and there are hints of the little boy he used to be."
Guidasci stretched her imagination into unknown realms with the Paladins, who wear a variation on the classic secret agent's trench coat, which hide specially crafted magnetic holsters that keep their Jumper-snaring weaponry close at hand. "The idea was that they could reach their weapons in the line of fire instantly," she explains of the design. For Samuel L. Jackson's Roland, Guidasci even made a coat out of ceramic fibers so he could remain comfortable on a set raging with fire.
As with the other elements of the film's design, a mix of realism and imagination was always at the center of the costumes. This mix, so intrinsic to Liman's style, became a constant source of inspiration for everyone on the set.
"Doug basically creates a living set," says Lucas Foster. "It's very unpredictable and raw and not at all manufactured. It was like we were really living this experience, jumping around the world."
Hayden Christensen summarizes, "There's a feeling that Doug Liman is constantly pursuing the truth. On this film, everything outside of the teleportation had to feel completely real to him. In so doing, he demanded the most of everyone working with him."
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