Paul Greengrass & Matt Damon to return for another "Bourne"

[JacksonArcher]

Despite saying for the past several years that Jason Bourne's story was finished, it appears Paul Greengrass (Captain Philips) and Matt Damon are indeed returning for another adventure in the Jason Bourne universe.

Deadline first broke the news, but Coming Soon reports that Universal has signed Paul Greengrass, who directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and franchise star Matt Damon for another Jason Bourne film. Universal had been developing a sequel to The Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner with Justin Lin (Fast Five) attached to direct. It appears that project is still happening - but the new Greengrass/Damon Bourne story will take its place as it is being targeted for a July 2016 release. The Justin Lin/Jeremy Renner spin-off, where Renner plays Treadstone agent Aaron Cross, will come after.

Latino Review first broke the news that producer Frank Marshall was courting Matt Damon to return to the franchise back in June, but now it appears it is official. In the past, Damon said he'd only return to the character if Paul Greengrass returned. As for Greengrass, he said he'd only return if they cracked a good enough story - or they pulled enough Brink trucks to his front house - but it appears they have. Although, I am more inclined to think they cracked a good enough story. Greengrass doesn't need to direct another Jason Bourne movie. His most recent movie, Captain Philips, was a huge hit both critically & financially. Greengrass has been circling a bunch of different projects, including directing a new project starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill. Matt Damon is likewise very busy.

Regardless, what are everyone's thoughts? I thought The Bourne Ultimatum was a very satisfying conclusion to the Jason Bourne character. While I am incredibly excited at the prospect of another Greengrass/Damon collaboration, I'm not sure how I feel about continuing the Bourne character after his story was essentially wrapped up in Ultimatum. I assume Bourne's story will involve what happened at the end of The Bourne Legacy, which had Pamela Landy's character being left hanging. Not literally, of course. Other than that, I'm not sure where the Bourne character can go from here - although I'm sure Greengrass has an idea.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

What's the point if it's not based on a book by the original author?

 

[Gaith]

I personally very much look forward to The Bourne Rebootancy, The Bourne Legacy (cont'd), and The Bourne Team-Upium.


... Never saw Legacy, don't care to, and wish Ms. Weisz would stop making so many crappy movies. I am, nevertheless, interested in a new Greengrass/Damon Bourne, despite never having bothered to even rent Green Zone.

 

[JoeZhang]

What's the point if it's not based on a book by the original author?

You've lost me - the films are only very loosely based on the books to start with? Unless there was a sequence where Carlos the Jackel appeared and I missed it.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

According to IMDB Tony Gilroy (The screenwriter of the first four Bourne movies) isn't involved either.

Different creative team, you'll never recreate the qualities of the original.

Hollywood likes to pretend the writing credit important because it makes it easier to control the brand, but it really is.

 

[Relayer1]

What's the point if it's not based on a book by the original author?

You've lost me - the films are only very loosely based on the books to start with? Unless there was a sequence where Carlos the Jackel appeared and I missed it.

I've only read book one and seen the first film, so I've no idea about the rest, but the first ones were nothing like. Only about 20% of the book made the film. There were whole chunks of plot dumped...

 

[gblews]

Excellent news!

 

[Lonemagpie]

The moviemakers admit openly that they took something like the first 30-50 pages of The Bourne Identity novel to adapt, and then just spun off completely new story arcs from there.

So, no worries, sounds great to me!

 

[Mojochi]

If it's a story good enough to grab Greengrass, then it's got to be at least as good as Ultimatum, which although not their best outing, it was still good enough. Clearly Damon trusts only Greengrass to bring the goods. So I can put some of my faith into that too

There was just a glimmer of plot that gave history to Bourne & Nikki too, in their last couple films. So maybe they'll expound on that some. That would still be better than Legacy, which I've only seen in passing, because I was so underwhelmed by the whole prospect. That whole thing just screamed "Must. Keep. Cash. Cow"

 

[JoeZhang]

The moviemakers admit openly that they took something like the first 30-50 pages of The Bourne Identity novel to adapt, and then just spun off completely new story arcs from there.

So, no worries, sounds great to me!

It's pretty much the stuff on the boat and the basic idea that Bourne is an agent for something called Treadstone. Half of the book is Jason Bourne coming to terms with the fact that he is Europe's most lethal assassin for hire (which is all part of a cunning plan to draw Carlos the Jackal out of hiding) - the Bourne identity being one that was of a real person that David Webb (his real identity) killed.

And no I'm not spoiler-coding a 30 year old book.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Regardless, what are everyone's thoughts? I thought The Bourne Ultimatum was a very satisfying conclusion to the Jason Bourne character. While I am incredibly excited at the prospect of another Greengrass/Damon collaboration, I'm not sure how I feel about continuing the Bourne character after his story was essentially wrapped up in Ultimatum. I assume Bourne's story will involve what happened at the end of The Bourne Legacy, which had Pamela Landy's character being left hanging. Not literally, of course. Other than that, I'm not sure where the Bourne character can go from here - although I'm sure Greengrass has an idea.

I see a few possibilities for continuing his story:

He seeks out information about his former life as David Webb in Nixon, Missouri; trying to learn about his family and even contemplating settling down into a semi-normal life when:

A) He learns that the government did something terrible to his family to force his entry into the Treadstone program and he seeks revenge for that.

B) He learns that his family life was horrible and that's what drove him to sacrifice himself to such an extreme program in the first place, so he decides after that and losing Marie that there's no better life to have and gets involved with private military contractors until he discovers someone or something new worth fighting for that goes against his corporate cronies.

C) An old adversary of his, having learned his identity in the media, seeks out his family and uses them as leverage or threatens to kill them, and he must respond.

Alternatively, you could have an intelligence agency recognize the skills Bourne and his fellow assassins have an try and form a new group, albeit a more benevolent one trying to stop international threats rather than just killing people who are inconvenient to the government. You could even bring Bourne and Hawkeye together in a Bourne Avengers style team-up movie after the next two are released.

Anyway, I'm glad to see Damon and Greengrass onboard again. Whatever they decide I have confidence it will be good.

 

[JoeZhang]

You could even bring Bourne and Hawkeye together in a Bourne Avengers style team-up movie after the next two are released.

Anyway, I'm glad to see Damon and Greengrass onboard again. Whatever they decide I have confidence it will be good.

I would be surprised if they even acknowledge that film* - especially as it goes off on a weird sci-fi angle that is unconnected with anything I've read about what either find interesting in the franchise.

* Except in a brief contractually obliged way.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

I would have thought they would gloss over or ignore it too until JacksonArcher said they were making a sequel to The Bourne Legacy in addition to the Damon/Greenglass sequel. Doing those film series team-up things seem to be all the rage these days.

I just look at the genetic engineering thing as a further development of the assassin programs rather than retroactively applying it to Bourne, since his seemed more like behavioral modification and possibly drugs alone.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Regardless, what are everyone's thoughts? I thought The Bourne Ultimatum was a very satisfying conclusion to the Jason Bourne character. While I am incredibly excited at the prospect of another Greengrass/Damon collaboration, I'm not sure how I feel about continuing the Bourne character after his story was essentially wrapped up in Ultimatum. I assume Bourne's story will involve what happened at the end of The Bourne Legacy, which had Pamela Landy's character being left hanging. Not literally, of course. Other than that, I'm not sure where the Bourne character can go from here - although I'm sure Greengrass has an idea.

I see a few possibilities for continuing his story:

He seeks out information about his former life as David Webb in Nixon, Missouri; trying to learn about his family and even contemplating settling down into a semi-normal life when:

A) He learns that the government did something terrible to his family to force his entry into the Treadstone program and he seeks revenge for that.

B) He learns that his family life was horrible and that's what drove him to sacrifice himself to such an extreme program in the first place, so he decides after that and losing Marie that there's no better life to have and gets involved with private military contractors until he discovers someone or something new worth fighting for that goes against his corporate cronies.

I would like some variation of these two options. One of the many things I've loved about the trilogy is how with each progressing film, the story pulls off a layer of the onion to reveal more of Bourne/Webb's life: His final mission, his first mission, his training. This time it should be his motivation for volunteering for Treadstone.

Normally, I'm skeptical on the idea of continuing a very satisfying conclusive story as the trilogy provided (and for the same reason, I don't want a Toy Story sequel), but if Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon think they have a good enough story to tell, then I trust them. I'm one of the few people who thoroughly enjoyed The Bourne Legacy for what it tried to do, and while I accept that it has some flaws, I would like to see Aaron Cross' story to continue. I also hope Julia Stiles returns.

 

[Locutus of Bored]

Yeah, I'd definitely like to see Julia Styles' story continue, and Pamela Landy's if they can somehow find a way to get her back in (legit) government service after the attacks on her credibility by the CIA.

 

[TheMurph]

I'm pretty excited about the the return of Damon and Bourne. I've never read any of the books so I don't care about how anything ties together in that regard, I just want to see an entertaining film.

 

[JacksonArcher]

Julia Stiles' character in Ultimatum seemed to strongly suggest she once had a romantic relationship with Bourne before he entered the Treadstone program. I'd be curious to see that relationship expounded in a sequel.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Count me in with what most of you have said - excited to see another 'proper' Bourne film from Damon and Greengrass but aware that the character got a great send-off in TBU and wondering what there's left to do with his story.

I quite enjoyed TBL, even if it wasn't a patch on the other two. The idea of a Justin Lin-directed film didn't really appeal to me. I quite like his F&F movies but they're enjoyable big dumb movies and, to me anyway, the Bourne series involved intelligent commercial film-making.

I wonder how this film, if confirmed, will affect that proposed sequel to Legacy? Frank Marshall has been making noises that both can still be made. The initial response to that is 'yeah right' and assume that it will be scrapped in favour of the Damon/Greengrass movie. But I've seen it speculation elsewhere that, given the tendency for 'universe-expanding movies' - the Marvel series, the plan for official Star Wars sequels, alternated with spin-off standalone movies, Sony's planned expanded Spider-man universe and Universal's plan to make an expanded series of horror monster movies - there could well be scope for both Aaron Cross and Jason Bourne films. Seems a little unlikely to me, but with Renner an increasing box-office draw, I suppose it can't be ruled out.

 

[JacksonArcher]

The Hollywood Reporter article seemed to suggest Renner wasn't happy with Universal planning a separate Greengrass/Damon collaboration and I can understand why. Renner had to overcome the Bourne/Damon comparisons when he took over the franchise. Now that Universal seems to be favoring a Greengrass/Damon reunion more than a sequel to Legacy, despite producer Frank Marshall's claims they want to develop both movies, I could see Renner backing away from the franchise.

It could be a win-win for the studio but only if they play their cards right. If I were them, I'd still keep the Renner/Lin movie in play for 2016 and develop the Greengrass/Damon movie for 2017 or 2018. Greengrass and Damon are both busy anyway so it makes more sense to get another Renner as Aaron Cross movie out there since it seems it is more moved along than a possible Greengrass/Damon movie. That way you are still showing confidence and support in Renner as Aaron Cross but also taking advantage of Greengrass and Damon's renewed interest in the Bourne character. You could even have an end credits scene at the end of the Legacy sequel which features Damon's Bourne, setting up the next movie. Especially if Universal wants to get into the "universe building" game.

We'll see what happens, though. To be honest, I wasn't a fan of The Bourne Legacy so I won't be bothered if we never see a sequel. I'm much more interested in seeing what Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon do with the Jason Bourne character again. Regardless, I feel a little bad for Jeremy Renner.

 

[Captaindemotion]

^He's got Avengers 2 and Mission Impossible V. I think he'll get by.