Casts
Hayden Christensen as David Rice, a young man who discovers the ability to "Jump" or teleport, then turns rebellious. David serves as the protagonist in the film.
Max Thieriot as teenage David Rice
Rachel Bilson as Millie Harris, David's childhood friend and crush who later becomes his girlfriend
AnnaSophia Robb as teenage Millie Harris
Samuel L. Jackson as Roland Cox, the leader of the Paladins whose goal is to kill Jumpers. Roland serves as the film's main antagonist.
Jamie Bell as Griffin, a renegade jumper who tracks down and eliminates Paladins
Michael Rooker as William Rice, David's father
Diane Lane as Mary Rice, David's mother who separated from her son when he was five years old
Teddy Dunn as Mark Kobold, David's childhood bully
Jesse James as teenage Mark Kobold
Kristen Stewart as Sophie, David's younger half-sister.
In November 2005, New Regency Productions hired director Doug Liman to helm the film adaptation of the science fiction novel Jumper by Steven Gould. Screenwriter Jim Uhls was hired to rewrite an adapted screenplay by David S. Goyer. However, Liman desired another rewrite and Simon Kinberg assisted in completing the script. Liman said about using the novel for developing the script: "This is 100% Steven Gould's story, it's just reinvented as a movie." In an interview with Steven Gould, he revealed that he approved of the deviations from the novel. Before filming was to begin, the studio announced plans to develop a trilogy based on the novel's premise.
While other films tend to use only one storyboard artist, Jumper required six, who each worked on an individual action sequence. The artists were given specific instruction on the rules of the teleportation used in the film, to ensure accuracy in the storyboarding. One of them, Rob McCallum, reflected on the instructions: "I was just thinking, 'How would a guy that can teleport fight?' So you were really pushing yourself to try to think of inventive, cool, spectacular ways that you could use this jumping talent that these characters have."
In April 2006, actors Tom Sturridge, Teresa Palmer, and Jamie Bell were cast for Jumper with Sturridge in the lead role (who won the role over Heath Ledger, Devon Sawa, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Jared Padalecki). The following July, actor Samuel L. Jackson was cast replace for Rapper Eminem in Jumper as an NSA agent, with producer Simon Kinberg rewriting the original screenplay draft by Goyer. Principal photography was scheduled to take place in Tokyo, Rome, Toronto, and New York.Production was stopped in June 2006 after producer Tom Rothman told Liman "The lead is 18. Wouldn't the movie be better if he was 25? You have a huge movie here and adults won't go and see an 18-year-old. They'll consider it a children's movie. You could make a bigger movie than that." Liman agreed on casting older actors for furthering the romantic aspect of the film. In August, actor Hayden Christensen replaced Sturridge in the lead role as David just two weeks before the beginning of shooting, as the studio "became concerned about not having a more prominent actor in their trio of young stars." After Christensen was recast for the lead role, Liman replaced Palmer with Rachel Bilson.