The Jason Bourne franchise is being resurrected – with or without Matt Damon on board, it seems…
It's little secret that Universal has been investigating ways to get its Bourne franchise back up and running, after the director of the past two instalment - Mr Paul Greengrass - left the series in the midst of post-production on Green Zone.
Greengrass is credited, rightly, with giving the franchise the injection it needed after the solid success of Doug Liman's The Bourne Identity. And both Supremacy and Ultimatum, the subsequently sequels, were met by increasing box office and critical acclaim.
However, the future of the franchise has been in limbo since Greengrass jumped ship. Matt Damon has insisted that he'd only do Bourne with Greengrass, which muddied the waters further. But now we'll see that resolution tested.
For Universal, it's being reported at Deadline, has appointed Tony Gilroy as the next Bourne director. Gilroy has worked on the screenplays of the three films to date, and has also helmed Michael Clayton and Duplicity. And thus, short of luring Liman back, he's arguably one of the most logical choices.
Universal, it's being reported, will press ahead with the franchise even if Damon doesn't return, perhaps treating it a little like the James Bond or Jack Ryan saga, where the lead actor proves to be replaceable. We'd be surprised if it went down the once-rumoured prequel route, though, and we wouldn't rule out a return for Damon after all.
As for a timescale, the original plan was for the summer of 2012 to mark the return of Bourne, but the mammoth production times of the films to date make that a testing target. However, Gilroy has written a script for Bourne 4, which appears to be currying favour with Universal, so again, it's still possible.
Deadline has more on the story here.