Més que -- un blog 
Hayden Christensen will star in "Jumper," a big-budget thriller being directed by Doug Liman, whose credits include "Swingers," "The Bourne Identity" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith."First, if this casting change had been made "preproduction", wouldn't it have been worthwhile to check to see that it was actually being made "preproduction", and not after filming had already started on the project? A simple Google search would have informed the "journalists" that, in fact, filming had already begun on Jumper earlier this summer, with the original star.
The film's production company, Regency Enterprises, has partnered with 20th Century Fox to finance the production, which sources say is budgeted in the $100 million range.
Christensen's casting jump-starts the production, which was to have begun shooting earlier this summer but had been running idle. Christensen replaces Tom Sturridge in the lead role of David; during preproduction, a decision was made to go with a more prominent actor. Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell and Teresa Palmer remain with the project.
Second, isn't the real story here not that Hayden Christensen is going to get another opportunity to ruin a big-budget film, but that the director's first choice for the role was dumped (after filming had begun, mind you) in order for him to get the part. "A more prominent actor?" C'mon, this isn't Orlando Bloom or Leonardo DiCaprio we're talking about here; this is Hayden Freaking Christensen. The other big film he did besides Clones and Sith, Shattered Glass, made a grand total of $3 million in domestic gross, and he was actually quite good in that. If Mr. Liman, the director, wanted the move, what does that say about his habits in preparation for making movies? (hey, kids, lets shoot a film, and we'll decide who the star is as we go along) And if he didn't, doesn't this make him look like the studio's bitch?
Third, what was Mr. Sturridge's reaction to all this? Was he disappointed? Relieved to be out of that hellhole? Considering that his father is also a director*, will there be consequences down the line for such contemptible treatment of the lad? But in the article, we're left to speculate, since it doesn't appear that the writers in question bothered to even attempt contacting him.
Those are obvious questions, and it rankles me no end that there aren't people out there who are willing to go beyond the studio's press releases, and try to give their readers an accurate view as to what's happening on a movie set. You'd think simple human curiosity would do the trick, or at least an aversion to always being lied to.
*And his mother is the Blogmuse, pictured top right.
3 comments:
I hope he sues the scumbags.
i'm thinking something else had to be in the mix...quite possibly he was difficult to work with...this particular director is actually known for his inability to handle actors. maybe we will find out, maybe not. My thing is, will this hurt Tom Sturridge's career? We will find out...I also wonder if his parents will make a statement about this. Maybe Tom did something that made it to where his parents really couldn't say anything to the producers...or maybe it was just the contract. Who knows? Yo no se.
They haven't made a statement yet, so I assume the producers probably paid him a nice hunk of change to go quietly. As far as him being "difficult to work with," he would hardly be the first actor for which that could be said. In any event, the IMDB site, which is notorious for airing behind-the-scenes gossip from the set, had nothing to indicate that his behavior was a factor.
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