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November 13, 2007 – Brash Entertainment announced today that a game based on the film Jumper is currently in development. Set to release on February 12, 2008, Jumper will place you in the shoes of Griffin, a man with the ability to teleport at will, in his quest to avenge his parents’ death at the hands of the Paladins. We had the opportunity to have a Q&A with Stephen Townsend, Senior Producer of Brash Entertainment, who was gracious enough to provide us with some brand new information on the upcoming title so we know what to expect next year.

IGN: So what sort of game is Jumper? Describe the gameplay mechanics.

Stephen Townsend: Jumper is an action/combat game.

Read more at IGN. Or Gamespot. Or Gaming Target (where they misspelled my name.)

Since it will be out in February, that should be just in time for your Christmas shopping!

On an unseasonably cold afternoon a few Fridays ago, I got a phone call that made me believe in the miraculous power of dumb luck.

My friend called to tell me that the famous Hollywood director Doug Liman (“Swingers,” “The Bourne Identity”) was shooting pick-ups with his lead actor Hayden Christensen (“Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith,” “Factory Girl”) for the upcoming film “Jumper” outside Ashley’s Restaurant and Pub on State Street, about seven blocks from my home on Packard Street and McKinley Avenue. Thousands of teenage girls have fantasized about the opportunity to meet Christensen, and with almost as much enthusiasm, countless film students like me have fantasized about seeing an A-lister like Liman at work on the set.

I ran my ass off.

Read the rest at The Michigan Daily, the campus newspaper of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

I asked my mom once what Christmas was like when she was a kid. My mom was born in 1915 on a farm in Kentucky—she remembered when cars first came to town. She vaguely remembered the Spanish Influenza epidemic of 1918. (Her father didn’t get sick and he kept the family alive on vegetable soup.) Christmas when she was growing up? “We got an orange in our stockings. And some chocolates.”

That was it? I couldn’t imagine Christmas without presents. But she said that Christmas wasn’t like that, then. When I was a kid, Christmas was already about toys. And Christmas specials. The Grinch. Merry Christmas Charley Brown. The day after Thanksgiving, Santa arrived at the local strip mall. But it wasn’t the big deal then it is now. Christmas didn’t start the day after Halloween. And Halloween wasn’t that big a deal. I made my own costume (without help.) Most people didn’t decorate. There weren’t Halloween parties.

Holiday Inflation. It’s weird. It’s all tied to consumerism and guilt. You decide to spend the same amount on everybody in the family, and your score on this great cashmere sweater at TJ Max for your sister that everybody is going to think is way more expensive than it really it. So then you have to buy more stuff for everyone else. And then you have to get something more for your sister because really, you didn’t spend that much on her and she only has one thing… Read More »