Universal Plan A Fourth Bourne Movie With Greengrass and Damon on board Source: Variety
When Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon were doing the publicity rounds for The Bourne Ultimatum last year, they seemed pretty certain that the wildly successful thriller (now the winner of three Oscars – techie ones, maybe, but Oscars nonetheless) would be the last outing for the amnesiac assassin.
But there was a caveat to that – Damon said he would consider doing one if Greengrass did it; and Greengrass said that he would consider doing another one if Damon did it.
And now it looks like that may be the case, after Universal rather casually and sneakily announced plans for a fourth Bourne movie, with the director and star on board.
The announcement is tucked away in an article about Universal and its upcoming slate on Variety. ‘More recently, [Universal’s chairman, Marc] Shmuger and [co-chairman, David] Linde landed Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon for a fourth "Bourne" movie, even though the director and star seemed ready to wrap it up after three pics,’ reads the sentence in question. And after that, nothing. No more news, or any indication of where a fourth Bourne might take us – or, crucially, when.
At the moment, Damon and Greengrass – rapidly becoming one of the best actor-director teams around – are hard at work on their Universal-backed Iraq-set thriller, The Green Zone. After that, Damon starts work on Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant, while Greengrass has several things pencilled into his diary, too, including They Marched Into Sunlight.
So, it’s entirely possible that Bourne 4 might not even begin pre-production until 2009 or 2010 at the earliest. But that’s still not too early to get excited.
Or should we? After all, the Bourne trilogy is one of the best Hollywood franchises in a long while, and the two Greengrass entries in particular (Supremacy and Ultimatum) pretty much single-handedly revitalised the mainstream thriller. Do we want the dream team to risk sullying their legacy by making a fourth, or are we keen to see Jason Bourne run for his life yet again?
Readers, have your say in the comments board below. In the meantime, we’ll see if we can’t bring you any more info. One thing is for sure, though – this is unlikely to have any connection, even title-wise, with a Robert Ludlum, or Ludlum-inspired, novel.
Oh, and for more on the Universal slate, including how they’ve reacted to news that Guillermo del Toro is going to direct The Hobbit for a rival studio after they bought the rights to At The Mountains Of Madness, click here.
theres plenty of stories left and places to go with bourne, to me the trilogy is one story over 3 films(done perfectly i might add).....who wouldn't want more. and to all those idiots saying leave it alone......you dont hear people saying leave the bond franchise alone, and theres plenty of times when ive wished they would ... Read More
Part of me would like to see a fourth Bourne movie but another part of me wouldn't. There's always that fear that they might make a mess of things and weaken the franchise or what's more, end up doing a lame live-action series, like Blade and Terminator. In so far as seeing an old-aged Bourne, I think that'd be too much like the Metal Gear Solid videogame series and I think the whole idea of Bourne having a son, whom future stories might be based on, is also a bit cheap. Part of what makes the ... Read More
I'm worried that they're just cashing in on the success of the previous films. I think the Bourne Ultimatum really concluded Bourne's story, and this could ruin the ending of that film (Bourne knows who he is, and is finally free from the CIA). However, if Damon and Greengrass are on board it could still be great. ... Read More
The Bourne films have been immeasurably improving our cinema experiences since 2002 as each installment forces everyone else to up their game to keep up. The tantalising idea of Bourne 4 appearing 2 years from now with the perfect director, world's most profitable actor, and multi-oscar winning tech crew who got more face time than some of the actors. Ummm....could be good! ... Read More
To all these people who think its a bad idea that Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon are going to make another Bourne movie, SHUT IT!!! The film, be it a prequel or an entirely new story set after Ultimatum, will be amazing. these movies have set a benchmark for every thriller on the go just now and the prospect of another makes me wanna dance like kevin bacon! One way I would like to see them do it is a brand new film that has nothing to do with the previous trilogy. I say nothing there would have ... Read More
NO, NO and NO.
No sequels, no prequels, no CGI enhancements a la Lucas, no unicorn sequence re-inserted...leave this trilogy the fuck alone, it requires no further work ... Read More
Really what the franchise needs is an extremely clever prequel. With J.J Abrams having a sway over the script, so that his brain, which is so well known for driving us crazy with little hints, would be able to patch together a film that would fill in all the blanks left in the trilogy and more. So that we would watch the other films and be like "Ahhh, it makes even MORE sense!!"
See if they ressurect it so late on, its in danger of looking like this years dramatically underwhelming ... Read More
Excited...but unsure...
I'm afraid of the horrible irony of them calling it the Bourne Legacy and in the process sullying the one they made with the first 3... ... Read More
