Trailer for Steve Gould's JUMPER

Steven Gould's Jumper is being made into a Hollywood movie with Hayden Christiansen and Samuel L Jackson, and the trailer has just gone live. I'm an enormous fan of the book -- I must have read it a dozen times since its initial publication -- and I've been waiting with crossed fingers for this movie as it inched its way from the news of the option to today. I'm really impressed with the trailer -- it captures that feeling of giddy delight that made the book so fantastic.

The book is about Davey Rice, a kid who discovers that he can teleport. Gould takes this hoary sf chestnut and really makes it work, taking one of the most likable characters in young adult genre fiction and getting him to scientifically test the limits of his powers, while resolving some really wrenching emotional dilemmas and going on an action-adventure that keeps me on the edge of my seat every time.

The movie takes a lot of liberties with the plot, but it looks like there's a lot to love in the story that Hollywood shot, judging by the trailer and what Steve's said. There's a new Jumper book out, Jumper: Griffin's Story, which I plan on reading ASAP, since it tells the story of some of the characters in the film who aren't in the book. Link (via Eat Our Brains)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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hatekillpuke

yes yes YES. I too have read this book many times, loving it every time. I am pumped for this movie!
Doug Nelson

February release date == producers know it sucks
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

Yo, Sphere!

November5th (21), what Jumper and The Stars My Destination have in common is teleportation, and the moral implications of teleportation. Other than that, they’re completely different books.
flatluigi

Seriously? This is one of my favorite books. Awesome.
Jason Erik Lundberg

That looks AWESOME. I can’t wait.

Also, this could be subtitled: Samuel L. Jackson Gets Revenge on Hayden Christiansen for Cutting Off His Hand in Revenge of the Sith.
the_boy

Preview? Awesome.

Chance to redeem Hayden Christiansen and Samuel L Jackson for the new trilogy? unlikely
C. A. Bridges

I’m torn. I love the book – and the sequel, “Reflex.” Once started, I am physically incapable of putting the books down without finishing them. But I have concerns about the movie, especially after reading his new book “Griffin” which serves as a backstory for one of the characters introduced for the movie. I understand that making a movie out of a book that’s largely introspection is a problem, but they seem to have added a whole mythology and Hollywooded it up.

SPOILERS FROM “GRIFFIN” AND THE MOVIE WEBSITE

Now Jumpers have existed throughout time and people called Paladdins can detect them and kill them. And Davy’s first jump came in a near-death drowning accident. And his girlfriend was a childhood friend… I suspect this is going to be yet another movie I can enjoy only if I completely disassociate it from the book. And that’s a damn shame.
Peter

Absolutely love the book, it’s one of my most-reread books.

But I guess I’ll have to wait until they use something other than crappy flash for the trailer, since it cuts out on me after a few seconds.
Ocker3

anyone else notice that the sound levels in the video are really low and tend to climb about the time he’s on Big Ben?
Peter

Ah, had to track down and delete the local copy of the FLV file they put on my computer. So now I’ve seen the whole thing. It looks good effectswise, but yeah, it looks like they changed way too many things for my liking. I’ll probably still want to see it, but I’ll be wishing it was more like the book.
Rock Steady

If nothing else, it’s got the potential for some really amazing fight choreography.
Matt Staggs

Oh noes!11!!! Abercrombie & Fitch in teh Hyperspace!
Michael

I particularly liked this:

Enter the ANYWHERE IS POSSIBLE sweepstakes!
US residents only.

Don’t people’s heads just explode from that kind of thing?
David H. Johnston

Jumper is being filmed here in Toronto and they are shooting pick-ups right outside in a building next door today.

David J.
JJ Loch

This is one movie my hubby and I will want to see!!!
Thanks for the heads up. :D

JJ

http://natureshows.blogspot.com/
ckd

The movie may be great, or it may stink.

Either way, I’m glad that Jumper and Reflex exist, and that Steven Gould is getting (what I hope is an egregiously large amount of) money out of the movie folks.

A good movie would be a bonus.

[Aside: why does the comment system filter out the <cite> tag?]
ratnamjoshi

What an interesting way to get people interested in reading! Book trailers are like movie trailers, but for books! You can find them all over the internet now, but here is a site that’s featuring them on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/booktrailers
ratnamjoshi

What an interesting way to get people interested in reading! Book trailers are like movie trailers, but for books! You can find them all over the internet now, but here is a site that’s featuring them on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/booktrailers
Peter

I knew it was being filmed in Toronto (I’m there too), but I thought it was all done. Where was it? On my way home, on Easten Ave, I saw a couple streets closed off and I wondered if they were doing any movie stuff there.

And I don’t see anything contradictory about BB linking to Amazon, Scoutmaster. I don’t think they’ve ever claimed to be absolutely against making money in any form.

As to rereading books dozens of times… well, when you read fast, time’s not a problem, and people watch movies or TV shows or listen to music multiple times, and people don’t usually comment on that.
Spherical Time

Also, I just want to say that while the movie looks very different from the book, I understand why they made the changes they did, and I hope that it will be a good movie anyway.

Further, when I spoke to Steve Gould, who wrote the original book and the “screenplay” novel that is actually a prequel for the new character, he understood this as well.

Either he’s genuinely relaxed about the changes that they made or he’s a darn fine actor. I plan on dragging him to the movie after he gets home from the LA premiere.

Oh, and I waves to:

#18 TNH, who is a paragon of virtue and intelligence.

OW!
Teresa Nielsen Hayden / Moderator

CKD (12), I don’t know the exact numbers, but it’s done Steve and his family a world of good.

Scoutmaster (14), it’s remarks like that that have me thinking I should have a macro that says “Y’know, that’s not actually Cory’s position on copyright.”

Why link to Amazon? To make it easy for people to buy copies.

How can Cory re-read a book dozens of times? One answer would be that he’s naturally overclocked. On the other hand, there are books I’ve re-read dozens of times, and I don’t have anything like Cory’s metabolism. Maybe the question is why you don’t.
xiga

There is also an amazing animated movie based on the same idea called The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (aka Toki wo Kakeru Shojo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Who_Leapt_Through_Time

It has won several well-deserved prestigious awards in Japan as well as France, and I highly recommend watching it.
AaronZ

Thanks for the heads up.

I’ve read Jumper and Reflex and was waiting for the third in the series.
Scoutmaster

First of all, how do you find the time let alone interest to read a book dozens of times? Secondly how come you link to Amazon when you advocate giving your work away for free?
Bonnie

Just another bit of Star Wars connection trivia for the readers:

Not only are Hayden and Samuel L in the film (who were in the Star Wars prequels) but also Nathalie Cox of the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game.
November5th

So Jumper is basically a kids version of The Stars My Destination? – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stars_My_Destination

It’s a fun idea, and it looks like it might be a good mivie, but you can’t beat the 50′s area sci-fi rocket ship awesomeness of the The Stars My Destination.