Talking to MTV's Splash Page blog, Jackson said that Iron Man 2's Fury won't be the super spy that we've been hoping for:

Not this time, not yet... We still haven't moved Nick Fury into the bad-ass zone. He's still just kind of a talker.

With Jackson signed to a nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios, maybe it's not surprising that they're choosing to wait before unleashing the full action Jackson, but if we're not seeing a bad-ass Fury by the time that 2012's Avengers rolls around, then something has gone horribly wrong.

Sam Jackson Says Nick Fury Won't See Action In ‘Iron Man 2' [MTV Splash Page]

The new agreement comes following Jackson claiming, at the start of this year, that negotiations to play Fury in future Marvel projects had stalled over the subject of money. The deal covers Iron Man 2 and contains an option for future movies like Captain America and The Avengers. Interestingly enough, reports also mention that one of Jackson's Marvel movies may be titled SHIELD (which is the name of Nick Fury's spy-organization in the Marvel Universe)... That suggests Jackson may be getting his own headlining movie out of this new deal. When we asked the studios ourself, a Marvel Studios rep said that the studio "does not comment on active negotiations", which sounds as close to a "Maaaaaayybe," as they can get away with saying.

Jackson irons out Marvel pact [Variety]

22 February 1999

Cher M. Henshaw,

OMG, I cannot wait. In just a few short weeks, the culmination of all my hopes, dreams, and fears (ha — not!) will come to pass as Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace hits theaters nationwide.

This shit is gonna be so good.

It doesn't look like any early copies have leaked online — believe me, I would torrent that shit so fast — so I've contented myself with watching the trailer over and over and over again on YouTube. It may be only two minutes long, but that two minutes is enough to validate George Lucas's status as an unsupplantable genius. This movie has it all — the classic slightly-beat-up Star Wars look, the crazy yet believable aliens, the lightsaber fights, and a beautiful girl.

Yup: Natalie Portman, who is like a super-talented actress. She was in The Professional when she was like eight, and I'm pretty sure she won an Oscar for it, because everybody talks about it all the time. I'm not quite sure how Lucas got her, because she's more of a "serious" artist — probably wouldn't want to see her host Saturday Night Live — but she'll surely bring a touch of sophistication to the proceedings. That's a fine thing, because she's obviously an eventual love interest, and one of my favorite things about the original trilogy was how potent but not over-the-top the romance between Han and Leia was. That's what we like. No one wants to see lovers running through a field of fucking daisies.

The whole cast, really, is something to behold. I have to admit, I kinda hoped Lucas would do like he did with the first three movies, and hire total unknowns (although I guess now that there's Wikipedia, no one's really unknown!), but I trust his instincts. I mean, three words for you, M. Henshaw:

Samuel. L. Motherfuckin'. Jackson.

That's right, a little of the old "Royale with cheese" magic is coming to the Galactic Republic. (Speaking of which: Quentin Tarantino — there's another director who's gonna keep the hits coming for decades to come. I'm never taking this Pulp Fiction poster off my wall.) Seriously, though, you could put Sam Jackson in a movie and not even show it to reviewers in advance to promote it — just stick in a scene where he swears a lot — and it would be a runaway success. Between him and this Captain Panaka dude who's in the very first teaser they released, looks like people of color are finally gonna get the respect, and the screen time, they deserve in the Star Wars universe.

And on a totally unrelated note, there's a kick-ass new alien companion to meet! Instead of being a furry dog-bear-thing like Chewbacca, he's more like a dragon. Maybe he breathes fire? (Watch out, Republic — if this guy's not careful, he'll destroy you all by himself! Ha ha!) Anyway, looks like he's got some dialogue, which is cool. Chewie's awesome, but it always seemed like a wasted opportunity that we didn't get to hear the nonhuman take on things more often. I bet this new fella will have a lot of good stuff to say.

Hmmm...went to Taco Bell for lunch and got a little cardboard promotional "coin" from the movie. This one shows Ric Olié, starship captain. Interesting. Looking forward to finding out more about him.

Looking forward to finding out more about the movie's villain, too! Darth Maul — he has a double-bladed lightsaber. It's pretty clear they put a lot of time and effort into his character, so I guess we'll be seeing quite a bit of him. And rumor has it we might just get — hells yeah! — a serving of Boba Fett besides. Well, it might not be Boba himself — it'll probably be a whole army of Mandalorian warriors. That's something we've been waiting to see for a long time now, so I know Lucas won't let us down. He's a master of his craft, and he knows the secret to good storytelling is about a lot more than special effects.

Fuckin' A — he wrote the whole screenplay himself. We are in good hands, M. Henshaw.

Anyway, I don't know what the plot's gonna be like, but I hope it's pure rollicking escapism, because in this post-9/11 world, we've all had our fill of politics. I'm sure I'll be thoroughly familiar with it by the time the movie's been out for a day, though — we're gonna go to the midnight showing and then see it four more times in a row! I confess, when they announced the title, I had some reservations, but the more I think about it, the more I convince myself that The Phantom Menace really does sound pretty cool.

Yeah, this is gonna be so good.

P.S. Saw another trailer the other day for something called Fight Club. How lame does that sound?

Commenter Moff's real name is Josh Wimmer, and he can usually be found at scribblescribblescribble.com/blog.

If nothing else, the increasing to-and-fro surrounding the cast of the sequel to last year's best superhero movie (Don't groan, Dark Knight fans, you know it's true in your hearts) is becoming an unexpected black eye on the previously perfect public face of Marvel Studios, which only months ago was looking like one of the most successful independent studios in the business and unable to put a foot wrong. Perhaps we should have seen the warning signs when Terrence Howard was unceremoniously replaced by Don Cheadle, and Howard's public confusion over the move was met by somewhat dirty leaks from studio insiders, but even so; that seemed like a one-time thing at the time, instead of the start of a trend.

Since then, of course, Samuel L. Jackson has hinted that Marvel are not bringing him back to reprise his role as Nick Fury, despite Fury appearing to be central to the planned Avengers movie (especially if it's as close to Mark Millar's Ultimates comic as has been rumored) because of a breakdown in negotiations over money. Just over a week later, Variety announces that the studio has offered Mickey Rourke a stunningly low $250,000 to play one of the two lead villains in Iron Man 2... a move that led, earlier this week, to Rourke saying that he wouldn't be doing the movie after all (The usual anonymous sources are saying that the deal isn't necessarily dead just yet).

Marvel, of course, haven't officially commented on any of these situations - and it's unlikely that they will, particularly as the Rourke and Jackson negotiations are still, officially at least, ongoing - but the fact remains that Iron Man 2 is beginning to look like a movie that's being hamstrung by accountants with their eyes staring a little too intently on the bottom line. This isn't exactly news - director and co-writer Jon Favreau has also complained about being lowballed by the studio in their initial offer to sign him for the sequel - but at this point, it's getting embarrassing for Marvel; the only actor who's not complained about the progress of the movie has been Robert Downey Jr. himself (Gwyneth Paltrow has griped about not having seen a script yet, and the production seems to be having trouble keeping the love interest that they cast... but at least neither of those are money-related).

We're still a year away from the release of the movie - Iron Man 2 is scheduled to open May next year (Although, let's face it, that date may end up being as unrealistic as Favreau publicly declared it when it was first announced) - but that doesn't change the fact that Marvel needs to either start coughing up some more money for this movie - and considering the first made close to $600 million, that shouldn't be too much of a struggle - or else start putting together a more convincing PR push to explain that everything's going to be alright in the end. Because, right now, it's not looking as if Tony Stark's second outing is going to be quite as bulletproof as his first.

Samuel L. Jackson strikes fear into the hearts of all right-thinking people by raising doubts as to whether he'll return as Nick Fury in the Marvel Avengers movie.

Jackson told the LA Times:

There was a huge kind of negotiation that broke down. I don't know. Maybe I won't be Nick Fury. Maybe somebody else will be Nick Fury or maybe Nick Fury won't be in it. There seems to be an economic crisis in the Marvel Comics world so [they're saying to me], 'We're not making that deal.'

Okay, the recession is hard on everyone, even Marvel. And it's possible his trippy turn in The Spirit left a battery-acid taste in people's mouths. But this would be a big mistake. Sure, Jackson may be using the press to puff up the fans and put pressure on the studios, but you know what? It worked.

Listen up guys, put him in the movie. He's an honest fan, who will do a great job. You're going to want an A-list cast in this bigger-than-life-movie, and this is not something to cut corners on. We want to see the beginning of SHIELD and the Avengers Initiative, and we can't do that without him in the next Iron Man. Well, we could, but would we want to?

Either way, if Avengers is supposed to be as big as everyone is hoping, it's going to need a nice long drumroll to get everyone hyped up. So let's involve the big dogs now, please. Stop cutting people who want to be involved and are talented. At this rate, after Terrence Howard getting replaced, we can't help wondering: is Robert Downey Jr. next?

Letting Frank Miller gallop across The Spirit film set unedited opened the doors for the actors to do so as well. In a press conference for his newly released film The Spirit Miller described how one should adapt a comic to film:

As far as what translates from comics to film, I find that they are the better source material, and would cite marvel's recent Iron Man and Incredible Hulk as wonderful witty jobs at adapting them. I think if they get too presumptuous, comic book movies tend to fall apart.

That's all fine and dandy to say, Mr. Miller, but revelations throughout the conference revealed that you and your cast went a little willy nilly with changes and additions. Case in point: the lovely Scarlett Johansson's part, Silken Floss, was completely rewritten and expanded once the gorgeous ScarJo wanted in on the project. And that was only the beginning of the actors dictating changes to the movie.

Take the Spirit's nemesis, the Octopus — an evil character brought to the flesh by Samuel L. Jackson. Despite Miller's many rewrites and expansions, after meeting a few actors, he ended up giving Jackson free rein.

At the presser Samuel L. Jackson was asked about if he was cautious about bringing to life a character that had never before been seen on film or in the panel. In the comics, the Octopus was always just a pair of ominous gloves. He explained that he created most of his character's look himself, in the makeup chair.

It's quite an honor to actually be able to walk into a situation and put flesh and blood into a character that's only been a pair of gloves. And I thank Frank for that opportunity. He gave me license to be as demented and as genius and as goddamn funny as I wanted to. So I kinda took that as my license to do all the things that I ever wanted to do in a film, chew as much scenery as I felt like chewing, and not be criticized for it....."

Also, the Octopus' notorious smeary makeup? All Jackson.

The big discovery for me was, Scarlett and I shared a makeup trailer. So when I would go in in the morning and they'd be making her up and I'd look at her and those beautiful colors of eye shadow on her and I'd go "Wow, I should try some of that." So I got my makeup artist to start experimenting with eye shadow and I would put it on then I would run in there and go "Frank!" and he'd go "I love it!" so then I'd go back to the trailer and go, if I'm wearing a Nazi outfit I should have lightning bolt eyebrows! And I'd go "Frank!" and he'd go "I love it!". And from that point on it was all just a matter of me just kinda me running in and doing as much as I can to myself, even down to the little ermine eyebrows, which I thought was kinda cool.

You just said a mouthful, Sam. While Jackson as a Nazi cat-killer in an SS Uniform may be full of win, seeing him leaking makeup just takes away from the character. There should have been someone on set saying, "Whoa, now we're getting ahead of ourselves let's all just think about what we're doing here for a moment."

Jackson said he also found a lot of inspiration in the wardrobe closet, and if you've seen any pictures from the film you'll agree it's got a pretty crazed assembly of ensembles. But at The Spirit's heart the story was really a romantic comedy, he said:

But other than [a moment where he kills a cat], there's no real mean spirited moment in the film. I don't even conceive that as a mean spirited moment, it's an example of what we do. Just one of those things. But having fun and creating a spirit of adventure in the middle of what we finally discovered was a romantic comedy was kinda great.

At the end, Jackson did truly seem to care about the character. He read all of The Spiritworks provided by Frank Miller. Plus, Miller and Jackson met constantly, trying to discover the reality of the Octopus and gave birth to a Lucy and Ricky type relationship between Silken Floss and Octopus (Sam is the Lucy).

The Spirit hits theaters on December 25.

Another similarity between the two awards ceremonies was the lack of ability to stick to running times; as MC for the evening Bill Morrison - writer and artist for Matt Groening's Bongo Comics - said at the end of the evening, "I'd really hoped to bring this to a close before 11pm, but gave up on that idea somewhere around 9:30. At least I brought it in before midnight!" Nonetheless, from the opening speech from a potentially inebriated Frank Miller (who - ironically for a man who's abandoned comics for Hollywood - told the audience, "If you're trying to do comic books: Forget the movies, forget the games. Don't try to do three things at once. Give me a really good comic book.") to the closing appearance by Miller's Spirit leading man Gabriel Macht (The Spirit was the main sponsor of the ceremony), the event was a questionably enjoyable mix of everything that makes up the comic industry these days... including the unexpected celebrity endorsements.

While the crowd went wild when Samuel L. Jackson appeared to present three awards - displaying a much-needed self-aware humor when winners took awhile to walk the long distance from their seats to the stage in silence - Jane Weidlin's attempts at humor were much less successful, if only because making jokes like "Get these motherfrakking snakes off this motherfrakking plane" wouldn't even have been funny when Snakes On A Plane was released two years ago. That said, her accompanying troop of the Empire's Finest provided some much needed spectacle to what was, otherwise, a fairly dry affair despite the best efforts of co-hosts Gerard Way, Tom Kenney (the voice of Spongebob Squarepants - which doesn't seem to be that unlike his own voice, really) and Reno 911's Tom Lennon and Ben Garant, who at least offered those who didn't win awards some much-needed solace:

We've all heard people say that 'if you're nominated, then you're a winner.' Usually that's bullshit. But tonight, everyone who's nominated for the Best Penciller/Inker of Penciller and Inker Team award really is a winner, because if you don't win, you'll go home with a George Foreman grill. The cash value of the grill may be higher than that of the award, we should warn you.

The best acceptance speech of the night came from Best Writer Ed Brubaker - the man who killed Captain America - who seemed genuinely shocked by his win:

I was texting somebody because I was so sure I wouldn't win... I'm gonna get out of here, because [Y: The Last Man writer] Brian K. Vaughan should've won. And don't you guys know who Joss Whedon is? I mean, Jesus Christ.

Joss probably didn't feel so bad, however; his indie webcomic Sugarshock won the Best Digital Comic award, while the Buffy The Vampire Slayer series won Best New Series.

The award winners in full:
Best Writer: Ed Brubaker for Captain America, Criminal, Daredevil and The Immortal Iron Fist
Best Writer/Artist: Chris Ware for Acme Novelty Library
Best Writer/Artist (Humor): Eric Powell for The Goon: Chinatown
Best Penciller/Inker or Penciller/Inker Team: Pia Guerra and Jose Marzan Jr. for Y: The Last Man
Best Painter of Multimedia Artist: Eric Powell for The Goon: Chinatown
Best Cover Artist: James Jean for Fables, The Umbrella Academy, Process Recess 2 and Superior Showcase 2
Best Coloring: Dave Stewart for BPRD, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Hellboy, The Umbrella Academy, The Spirit and many others
Best Lettering: Todd Klein for Justice, Fables, League of Extraordinary Gentlement: The Black Dossier, Crossing Midnight and many others
Best Continuing Series: Y: The Last Man
Best Limited Series: The Umbrella Academy
Best New Series: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Best Single Issue: Justice League of America #11, by Brad Meltzer and Gene Ha
Best Anthology: 5 by Becky Cloonan, Fabio Moon, Gabriel Ba, Vasilis Lolos and Rafael Grampa
Best Publication for Kids: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152 and Mouse Guard: Winter 1152
Best Publication for Teens: Laika by Nick Abadzis
Special Recognition: Chuck BB for Black Metal
Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Strips: The Complete Terry And The Pirates, Vol. 1
Best Archival Collection/Project - Comic Books: I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!
Best Humor Publication: The Perry Bible Fellowship: The Trial of Colonel Sweeto and Other Stories
Best US Edition of International Material: I Killed Adolf Hitler
Best US Edition of International Material - Japan: Tekkonkinkreet: Black and White
Best Comic-Related Periodical/Journalism: Newsarama.com
Best Comics-Related Book: Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean by Douglas Wolk
Best Publication Design: Process Recess 2, designed by James Jean and Chris Pitzer
Best Digital Comic: Sugarshock by Joss Whedon and Fabio Moon
Best Short Story: Mr. Wonderful by Daniel Clowes, from the New York Times Sunday Magazine
Best Reality-Based Work: Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow
Best Graphic Album - Reprint: Mouse Guard: Fall 1152
Best Graphic Album - New: Exit Wounds
The Bill Finger Excellence In Comics Writing Award: Archie Goodwin and Larry Lieber
The Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award: Cathy Malkasian, for Percy Gloom
The Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award: Brave New World in Santa Clarita, CA
The Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award: Paul Levitz, President of DC Comics

Image by Marvel Comics' Agent M.

Let's disregard the godawful late-90s rock music in the background for a moment, and focus on the big bad. First, you've got a ton of things going on that make no sense. The Spirit is seen climbing across big fat lady lips, that's a bit jarring. Next there's the dialogue: it's rotten. It reeks of trying too hard. "You're so close," coos Lorelei. Finally, the barrage of Hollywood hotties seems more like a desperate play for sexiness than picking the right actor for each role.

One good thing about this trailer is we finally get to see more of the actual Spirit (Gabriel Macht) it looks like he'll make a good Denny Colt, but I'm ready to see the darker side come out of this actor.

[Film School Rejects]

Supposedly in the movie, the Octopus is a meek lab assistant who reinvents himself as a psychotic horror that kills anyone who looks upon his face. In the original comics, the Octopus has the memorable name of Zitzbath Zirk, and he is apparently killed when trying to blow up the city's power plant. But he later comes back disguised as his own mother, and then jumps into an incinerator, escaping unharmed. Here's his original origin:

[Comic-Con]

Iron Man:

I know I said we weren't going to talk about the Samuel L. Jackson cameo in Iron Man ever again, but then people started posting cameraphone copies of it on YouTube. Here's our version. [Thanks, Greg!]

X-Files: I Want To Believe:

X-Files 2 is a return to the "horror genre X-Files started in," says David Duchovny. Also, Scully is working in a Catholic infirmary called Our Lady Of Sorrows Hospital, which is really an abandoned mental hospital in Vancouver. One scene involves Scully, a bed-ridden boy, and a "vulture-like priest." And there's a scene which takes place in the hospital's chapel. Also, that rural house where Mulder is living at the start of the movie? He's hiding out there, because he's still a fugitive. [X-Files News]

Indiana Jones And the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull:

A memorabilia site has photos from Indiana Jones And the Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull for sale, and some of them are quite spoilery, including some pics of Indy handling the eponymous skull of crystal. Plus, Indy in quicksand! (Is Mutt using a snake to get him out, or a big stick?) And Indy getting choked by soldiers! And Indy in a weird 1950s pastiche with plastic kids. Huh? [Worst Previews and Slashfilm]

Batman: Gotham Knight:

Warner Home Video released some new images for Batman: Gotham Knight, its direct-to-DVD animated anthology that comes out July 8. And Alan Burnett, who edited all six of the scripts, revealed some new details about the sixth segment, which he wrote. Titled "Deadshot," it features the gunman with perfect aim from the Bat-comics. Says Warner, "The segment ties together threads from all the film's chapters as Batman must thwart an unerring assassin whose love of guns and disregard for human life lets him cross lines that even a Dark Knight shies away from." Burnett, who worked on the seminal Batman: The Animated Series says he was never allowed to use Deadshot in the TV cartoon because they weren't allowed to show real bullets. In the DVD, Deadshot's first murder takes place against a backdrop of fireworks and balloons. [Warner Home Video]

Amazing Spider-Man:

On the heels of that picture we showed you of Anti-Venom, who's like the antifreeze to Venom's engine oil, more details about this summer's Amazing Spider-Man storyline have come out. "New Ways To Die" runs from ASM #568-573, and features Norman Osborn, current Venom Mac Gargan and original Venom Eddie Brock... who is now Anti-Venom.

Besides totally radical fashion sense, these villains have one thing in common: they knew Spider-Man's secret identity long before he unmasked in the "Civil War" storyline. Now that the timeline has changed in the wake of Spider-Man's deal with the Devil (don't ask), suddenly these three villains don't know his identity any more. The storyline crosses over with Thunderbolts, where Norman Osborne is in charge, and culminates in one of the most asked-for battles of all time. Oh, and it's written by Dan (She Hulk) Slott, who's quite good when he's allowed to be fun. [Comic Book Resources]

Weirdly, both properties involve Doug Liman, who directed Jumper and executive-produced Knight Rider. We just hope that in some parallel universe there's a kickass version of Knight Rider featuring Jamie Bell as the new driver, with Sam Jackson as the voice of KITT. So where do you stand?

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

What was the most challenging aspect of making a film that involved teleportation?

We did everything for real. We didn't use computer generated characters. You know the superhero films that preceded this have relied heavily on them, and obviously it would have been a really simple way to do the visual effects, because if you computer generate the characters, you can easily make them "jump." It's a lot more difficult to have somebody teleport when you have a real actor doing it. Part of the reason the visual effects stand out in this is because we put all that extra work in when we were shooting.

Traditionally, there have been two kinds of Hollywood tentpole movies: there's the visual effects version where you shoot it all on a soundstage, you never leave it although you "pretend" you left it to go to all these places, and you use visual effect to do the pretending for you. Then there's the version where you physically travel the world, a la James Bond or Jason Bourne, but then you don't do any visual effects in those places. You justify that by saying since we're going, we won't have to use visual effect to communicate that we're there.

We did something that was a bit unusual. We physically traveled to all these places, and then we did visual effects in those environments. We really flew a helicopter over the Sphinx and around the Pyramids. It would have been a lot easier to just generate that stuff in a computer; they're simple geometric shapes, there's just desert in the background, it couldn't have been simpler to generate. But it would never look the way it looks when you see Hayden Christensen on the Sphinx. There's a level of reality that computers just can't achieve at this particular state.

Was he actually on the Sphinx or digitally put up there?

He wasn't digitally put on top of it. We designed the shot, we pre-visualized the shot, we went to the Sphinx without Hayden and flew a helicopter around it following a very specific trajectory. Then we took the telemetry of that shot and filmed Hayden in Mexico using a cable-cam which could play back the moves the helicopter did, and then we combined these two pieces of film the old-fashioned way. It didn't require any digital creations because they perfectly matched up. Every single of grain of film is real, not something that was created in a computer. We shot the real elements wherever we went.

We know the film is based on Steven Gould's books Jumper and Reflex, and now he's also published a novel called Jumper: Griffin's Story which is meant to tie-in with the film. What was the script like when you came onboard?

There was a first draft by David Goyer, which was very faithful to the Steven's novel. Anyone who has looked at my Bourne adaptation will see that I kind of take the cool idea from the book and then reinvent the whole thing as a movie, and I tried to bring that whole logic to Jumper. In particular because the book dealt with terrorism, which I didn't like. The combination of jumping and terrorism didn't seem good to me. There wasn't a second jumper in the book. I had really just fallen in love with Steven Gould's character David who was using his power for selfish means, and I wanted to actually pursue that more than he had in the novel.

I love the notion that... okay, you're a superhero, you're globetrotting, you have it all, and then suddenly you meet another superhero who is significantly more talented at it than you are, and you're not the big man on campus anymore. I found that really interesting. The moment I decided to chase David Rice's darker side, you don't get to have your standard cookie-cutter superhero movie plot. There's not a villain who is setting out the destroy the world, and you don't have a hero who is trying to save the world. I didn't feel the Hollywood need to have David Rice become a hero in the Hollywood finale. I didn't want to see Hayden Christensen become Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man in the second half of the film.

Did you create anything for the movie that wasn't in the books? The movie uses jumpscars and jumpcraters whenever someone uses their jumping ability. Were those created for the movie?

Those were created for the film. The source for them is that I wanted this movie to follow, as much as possible, to follow the real laws of physics that govern this planet and the universe. One of the most primary rules is that you don't get something for nothing. It's all a closed loop, it's a closed system. Everything you do has some kind of a price. For example, cars seemed like a magical device when they they were first invented, but they ultimately came with a price with pollution and global warming.

In other superhero films, people tend to have the power, but there's never any physical price that the person or the planet pays in order for that phenomenal event to take place. I wanted there to be some kind of consequence every time you jump, and that leaving behind a trace would ultimately mean that you wouldn't want a lot of people jumping because of those effects. They could be dangerous if somebody walks into them, they could be harmful to the environment.

I've tried to show that in some really subtle ways. For instance when he jumps from New York to Ann Arbor, the tv changes momentarily to a New York station. I'm trying to communicate that these portals stay open for a short burst... for instance if you jump from the Sahara desert to the Arctic, would be bringing warm air and cold air to each environment, and that might not be good for the planet on a large scale. If you jumped and there were no after effects or repercussions, it would seem like a much more magical power. But, my bullshit meter in me says this would come with a consequence, and wouldn't be like Superman just being able to fly. If he could actually fly, he'd leave a wake turbulence, and there would be consequences to him and other people when he'd fly. These things can't just happen for free.

What about Samuel L. Jacksons character and the Paladins who pursue the Jumpers?

There's no Paladins in the book, there's no mythology of that, there's no one pursuing the Jumpers in that first book. In the second book people are trying to catch the Jumpers for personal gain. You know if you could get a Jumper to work for you, they'd be extremely useful. I was more curious to explore a villain who really wasn't a villain, other than that they wanted to destroy the Jumpers simply because of what they can do. I really believe that in our current climate, if there were people who could actually teleport, there would be people who would think that was treading on some sort of holy land, and that should only be reserved for god. There are already plenty of people who kill in the name of god for far less dramatic reasons.

We do like the fact that there isn't a lot of exposition in the film about how the jumping works, or explanations of things like jumpsites and jumpscars. They just accept it and get right into it.

Well, because David Rise isn't a physicist. If I had a character who was quantum physicist at MIT who one day discovers he can teleport, then that character would commence an investigation as to how that happens. But, a high school dropout is never going to understand how he's able to teleport, and since I'm telling the story from his perspective, I didn't feel like it was necessary to bog down in science that the characters themselves wouldn't understand.

Can you tell us about your next film? We know that it involves going to the moon, but what else can you let us know?

The premise of the movie is about a group that mounts a private expedition to not only go to the moon, but also to colonize it. It's set present day, and it is not science fiction, it's science fact. The blueprint for going to the moon was designed 40 years ago, and the components for implementing it are so old that they're in museums waiting to be stolen. So the group steals, buys, and in other ways pull together all the components it would take to launch and actually land on the moon.

Their goal is to actually leave somebody behind. They're recreating the Apollo mission up to a point, and then exceed it by leaving someone behind and starting mankind's exodus out into the universe. Plus, you can imagine how much shit can possibly go wrong, and it does. It's actually a miracle that it didn't go wrong in any of the lunar landings. What I'm also hoping to do with this film is to once again celebrate what was America's greatest accomplishment in its 200 and some-odd year history. There really is no other country that could have done what we did in the 1960s with the space program.

We know you're executive producing the Knight Rider television movie that comes on this weekend, how involved have you been with it?

I've been very involved with it, at least as involved as I can be given the fact that I'm finishing a visual effects movie. But I'm very involved with it and I would remain a producer on it if it goes to series.

Based on a critically-acclaimed young-adult novel by Steven Gould, the premise of Jumper is instantly intriguing. A fifteen year old geek with a shitty home life discovers one day that he can teleport out of any situation and into the stacks of his local library. Then he figures out that he teleport into a bank vault, grab several sacks of cash, and teleport back out again into a life of New York luxury apartments and gratuitous surf sequences in Fiji. He can even use his teleportation power to finally beat up the jocks in high school who call him "riceball." (Why that's supposed to be so insulting is unclear.)

All this stuff happens in the first few minutes of Jumper, and there's a fun Spider-Man-discovers-his-powers feeling to these scenes as hero David Rice (Christensen) "jumps" his way into the life every teen outcast has always wanted. The problem is that we never advance much beyond that teen dream into the satisfying payoff of seeing him do grown-up stuff like trying to protect the innocent and fight for great justice. OK, maybe that isn't exactly what all grown-ups do, but it's what a sympathetic hero does. And David doesn't, even after he's become a hunky twenty-something with money and power.

Instead he steals more cash, teleports to London to pick up a chick whom he bangs and quickly teleports away from so he can catch some surf in the morning. So here's what we've learned so far: teleportation is the ultimate fuck-em-and-chuck-em power. Things start to look up when he meets leather-clad British punk Griffin, another jumper (mercifully played by a real actor, Jamie Bell). With Griffin's help, he figures out how to jump with cars and motorcycles and drive through walls at top speed. Sadly, though these powers look awesome, they don't make him a hero either. David spends the rest of the flick acting like a petulant, entitled yuppie who cannot believe that anybody - especially Paladins - would try to stand in the way of his selfish happiness. Even when he tries to grow a soul by finding his long-lost high-school love Millie again, he shows his affection by buying her lots of crap and then treating her like same.

The main plot arc of the movie, if I may be so bold as to call it that, is that David and Griffin are fighting the Paladins who want to kill them. Apparently Roland the Main Dude Paladin (Jackson) is part of a secret group who hunt down and kill jumpers because "they always turn evil." And after watching David in action, you kind of agree with him.

That said, there really is a lot to enjoy in this movie. The jump effects are cool, though not mind-blowing, and the car chases and fight scenes are good, comic-booky fun. Bell is terrific as Griffin, a jumper who lives in an underground bunker somewhere in the remote Egyptian desert and has devoted his life to destroying the Paladins. He even calls his home a "lair." But no matter how many references to Marvel comic books the generally-superlative writer David Goyer (Blade, Batman Begins) throws into the script, you won't come away from Jumper thinking that you've seen a new superhero in the making.

Instead, you'll feel like you've been adequately entertained for a nice 90 minutes - especially if you've only paid a bargain matinee price for admission.

Jumper opens tomorrow in theaters across the United States.

[RopeofSilicon]

Okay, we know that's probably an address reading "109" on the top of that building in the background, but it's fun for us to pretend that they decided to feature our nanotech-grown Tokyo headquarters in this new "teleport your ass everwhere" movie. We wouldn't have taken any product placement dough in return, just the ability to leap through space and leave jumpscars all over the world.

The megaversion of the above photo can be found here, or you can gather the codes and stuff that you need to jump to Tokyo on the Jumper site here.

First of all, Jumper will be visually amazing. The "scar" that teleportation leaves behind is a brilliant effect. And the battle scenes between Christensen and Samuel L. Jackson's teleporter-hating Paladin make awesome use of both the teleportation and the Paladins' grapple-hook/taser weapon.

Secondly, the dialog in the trailer is pretty blah, despite a script by David Goyer (Batman Begins). And trailers usually include the best lines from the movies they promote, so that's a bad sign.

Finally, Jumper looks set to raise all sorts of interesting questions about privilege — and then probably walk away from them. Christensen's character starts out as a nobody, but uses his power to become wealthy and shiny, and bop all over the world leaving messes for other people to clean up. So the teleportation isn't just an escapist fantasy, it's also a metaphor for social mobility in the real world. That probably comes from Steven Gould's original novel, which I haven't read yet. But it also looks pretty likely the film won't really delve into those issues much. Here's hoping I'm wrong.