Following yesterday's news of the upcoming release schedule at Fox, Universal has now jumped in on the action. The studio has announced that the developing fifth Bourne movie, which reunites Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass with the franchise, will be shifting back a fortnight into the slot just vacated by **Planet Of The Apes 3. The amnesiac super-spy will now return to cinema screens on July 29, 2016.
The move gives the film a bit of breathing room in that crowded summer, meaning it now won't open a mere week after Star Trek 3 as originally planned. As the schedule stands, it currently only shares a weekend with Mike And Dave Need Wedding Dates. Mike and Dave may need rather more than that to avoid a box-office pummelling.
If you missed it, the new, as-yet untitled Bourne was announced back in November, with the knock-on effect that any follow-ups to the Jeremy Renner-starring Bourne Legacy have been shelved for the time being.
Damon had always said he wouldn't do another one unless Greengrass was involved, and both had maintained they didn't have much interest in returning to a story they felt they'd completed unless the right script could be found. It now transpires that they'll be writing that screenplay themselves, in cahoots with Greengrass's usual film editor Christopher Rouse. No story details have so far emerged, and Tony Gilroy, hitherto aboard all the Bournes as a writer and latterly director, is not involved this time.
The series has always played fast and loose with its source novels, but there are, at this point, eight unfilmed 'titles' in the series following The Bourne Legacy (written by Eric Van Lustbader, who took over the novels from Robert Ludlum). Damon and Greengrass may well go their own way for the fifth film, but just for funsies, tell us which of the books you most like the sound of for the July after next.
[[Poll1156]]
*Not real.