‘Jumper,’ a Hollywood movie directed by Doug Liman, is to be released this spring. A scene for the movie was filmed at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science (RNC) in February last year. Almost 100 members of staff traveled to the center, including Liman, renowned for his film ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’, and actor Hayden Christensen, of ‘Star Wars: Episode II—Revenge of the Sith’. Filming started at 7 am and wrapped up at 2 am the next day. Unfortunately, the scenes filmed at RIKEN were eventually cut due to a change in the script. However, the filming of the scene offered an exciting opportunity for people working in scientific research and the movie industry to meet. A reporter on the event told Liman, “‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ is the first action movie I ever liked,” to which Liman answered, jokingly, “Actually, it should be called a romantic movie.”
Over the course of a lunch break during the filming at RIKEN, Liman answered questions about both the film, ‘Jumper’, and his interest in science. One of the questions put to Liman was, “Why did you come here [RIKEN] to film this movie?” He replied, “The production company of ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ offered me the job almost a year ago. The staff of ‘Jumper’ is almost the same as that of ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith,’ and we are almost like a big family, loving and hating each other.” He was also asked whether this was the first time he had used a research facility in a film. “Yes,” he replied. “After we decided to film at RNC, I looked into all the accelerator facilities around the world on Wikipedia. Physics research using accelerators is surely as impressive as an expedition to the moon. The RIBF is an incredible place, and it really inspired me.” Finally Liman was asked whether he had an interest in science. His response was:
“In fact, the subject I got best marks in during high school was physics. And I myself have actually built a robot… a cat-shaped one. I considered studying physics at university, but I chose history instead. And I do include some more-or-less scientific factors in my movies, as I did in this one, ‘Jumper.’
“And I have a scientist in my family— my sister is a neuroscientist. That makes me feel much closer to science. My heart is always in science, and I am always interested in scientific matters.”
When the filming was over, Liman and Christensen left their signatures on top of the RNC Superconducting Ring Cyclotron.
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Tags: Doug Liman, Jumper, Rachel Bilson