It seemed like Matt Damon was just being classic, charming Matt Damon the last time that he openly talked about the possibility of another go as Jason Bourne. Back in May, he told CNBC that he’d be willing to reprise his most ass-kicking role, despite the fact that the torch had basically been passed to Jeremy Renner, so long as there was a good story and Paul Greengrass was also returning to direct. At the same time, Greengrass was telling a similar story, that he’d be down to return for his third film in the Damon franchise (and fourth overall), but only if the story was good enough and Damon was on board to star. Basically, it sounded like they were playing responsibility tennis, all while hoping that people would eventually stop asking the question.
Or they were being completely honest and we just suck at reading between the lines, because according to Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. (and predicted by Latino Review back in June), Damon and Greengrass are back and ready to rock the shaky-cam one more time.
I’m told that the studio is so bullish on this that the intention is to make the re-team the next Bourne film to go into production to make the July 16, 2016 release slot that Universal had previously assigned to an untitled Bourne film. That would mean it would step in front of the spinoff sequel that is to reprise Jeremy Renner and be directed by Fast & Furious architect Justin Lin. That film, which began with the Tony Gilroy-directed The Bourne Legacy, remains in development.
Universal intends to continue that series and to broaden its franchise base, much the way that Marvel cranks out superhero films. (Via Deadline)
So if this report is accurate, it means that we’ll actually have two Bourne franchises running at the same time, with Damon coming back in two years and Renner returning for his far-less-exciting adventure after that. Some might think that a good idea would be to inject some energy into the follow-up to the sorely lackluster The Bourne Legacy (I disagree with Fleming’s assessment, as it was an honorable mention for my Worst Movies of 2012), but Universal’s studio execs don’t get to shout, “CHA-CHING!” two times if they team Damon and Renner up for just one movie.