So “Bourne 4” is on track to shoot in the fall of 2010, yes?
Actually, yes. A source who told us all good things on Steven Soderbergh’s upcoming new project, “Knockout,” also then told us good things about “Liberace” — which ‘Bourne’ star Matt Damon is supposed to co-star in. Soderbergh and his team would like to shoot “Liberace” in the summer of 2010 (the filmmaker himself said this recently) specifically because Damon has his schedule left open fall/late winter 2010 for shooting “Bourne 4.”
If it’s ready to go. In a move that showed not a lot of faith in “Bourne 4” screenwriter George Nolfi — currently busy working with Matt Damon on “The Adjustment Bureau,” yes, its an incestuous little world — by hiring another writer, Josh Zetumer to write what they are euphemistically calling a “parallel” script.
What does that tell you? Universal is not happy with Nolfi’s draft and they’ve commissioned another one in case the writer turned director can fix his version to their liking. Universal has a window, wants to use it and knows a ton of money is at stake if they don’t nail it. You don’t need to be a genius or have an inside source to tell you there are some problems brewing behind the scenes, but without getting into too many specifics, this is what’s happening.
Matt Damon recently expressed skepticism about the “Bourne 4” project, and once again in another interview during Venice press for “The Informant!,” the star echoed the problems with the script that no one seems to be happy with. “If you have a good fourth Bourne story, call Universal and they’ll give you a bunch of money!” he quipped. Will they make a fourth film? “Maybe,” he says. “If we can figure out a good story.”
What seems abundantly clear is Damon and director Paul Greengrass are not really chomping at the bit to make a fourth Bourne movie unless the script is perfect and up to quality control standards. “It’s just that our job, on the creative side, is to make sure that we create something that’s of a standard. And this one’s really tricky: you can’t see the guy saying “I don’t remember” any more, because he’s lost and regained his memory three times already! But Bourne isn’t built [like, say Bond], unfortunately. I mean, the studio would love that, they’d say, “Well, why don’t you build him that way??” (Laughs) But, what, is he gonna go back and work for the government now? That doesn’t make any sense. So it’s a tricky one, trying to figure out a way, organically, to have a fourth story. But we want to do it.”
Universal wants one fairly to pretty badly, especially after the summer they had “Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah… there’s a huge amount of pressure . Because even if we made a horrible movie, it would make money, and they know that. But it’s not like somebody’s hammering at our door. It’s just that they would love to make another Bourne movie, and I understand why. It’s so hard to have a sure thing in Hollywood, and this is as close as you get. So, from an executive’s standpoint, I get it.”
Damon does end his Bourne thoughts on a positive note though. “So we wanna make another one. But we want to make it right.”
However, we’ve also been hearing Greengrass has been sniffing around other projects (no, this is a completely different source) and we can’t say which. That doesn’t mean “Bourne 4” won’t happen and Greengrass can’t save that for later, but just sayin’…
Seems like they're going out on a limb to find a good story and that always makes for bad sequels. If there isnt a logical direction to take it, it will fail. It's obvious the franchise has run its course. It was wrapped up nicely and you can't do another without doing what we've already seen.
I disagree. You could make five great Bourne movies if you wanted. He's a great character. Just because sequels tend to be bad doesn't mean they must be. Look to television. How many fucking hours did the character of Tony Soprano get to evolve? Countless. Yes, movies aren't television, but as Damon said, it's all in the writing, in the direction someone takes the story.