A lot of big movie directors are adolescent geeks who get a style upgrade and an attitude adjustment after they achieve success — whatever you think of Tim Burton or Quentin Tarantino now, believe it or not, before they had money and clout, they were worse — but a profile of Doug Liman in New York magazine is fascinating partly because Liman doesn't seem to have been changed much by his success. (Reporter Steve Fishman, on meeting with Liman at the director's production office: "Liman arrives late, as usual. As usual, he wears a T-shirt and jeans, though today he’s also got on a long fitted coat. 'You look good,' says an assistant. 'What's wrong?'") That success was long in coming. Liman was dependant on his father, Arthur Liman (the New York lawyer best known as the prosecutor in the Iran-Contra scandal), for financial support until he was able to direct his first film, Swingers, when he was thirty-one. Jon Favreau, who wrote and starred in the movie (with Vince Vaughn), had hoped to direct it himself, but was unable to secure funding; Liman got the money, again, from his father. (The deal that Liman cut with Miramax for the finished film made him a rich man, something that led to a temporary estrangement from Favreau.)
Since then, Liman has made one movie that straddled the indie world and Hollywood, and three films — The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and the forthcoming Jumper — that comprise what he calls "my sellout trilogy." You might think that Hollywood would love the bejesus out of this guy, who has shown an ability to freshen up commercial material in a way that has not only produced a string of hits but kicked off a major franchise in the Bourne series. But instead, Universal so hated Liman's behavior on the set of the first Bourne movie — which, in addition to his chaotic filming style, which inspires complaints from some that he seems disengaged rather than in charge, included a true uber-geek episode in which Liman "paid the crew overtime to light a forest so he could play paintball" at night — that they didn't do the customary turnabout that the industry routinely performs with troublesome directors and embrace him warmly when he delivered at the box office. Instead, when Brad Pitt wanted to do Mr. and Mrs. Smith for Universal, Liman claims that Pitt "was told he could pick any director he wanted except me." This had the predictable effect. Liman's actors do tend to end up in his rooting section. Matt Damon credits the director with saving his career with Bourne. And Sarah Polley, who starred in Go, won the New York Film Critics Circle's Best First Film prize for her direction of Away from Her, she asked Liman to be be her escort for the evening — though she couldn't resist telling him that he should do it because "It's the closest you’re ever going to get." Liman doesn't seem so sure. "I kind of lost my indie credibility over Mr. and Mrs. Smith. I know I haven't lost it. I just have to go make an independent movie. I just have to do it. Just for me."