Ok, Matt Damon is not coming back for Universal‘s 4th edition of the Jason Bourne franchise; the Tony-Gilroy-penned and to-be-directed, “The Bourne Legacy.” This we already know.
How does the actor — who said he would not come back to the series without “The Bourne Supremacy“/”The Bourne Ultimatum” director Paul Greengrass — think about the announcement and Gilroy’s thoughts that essentially the 4th film will take place in a world where Jason Bourne exists, but won’t actually feature the titular character. Surprisingly, during press for Clint Eastwood‘s “Hereafter,” interviewers didn’t seem to have time to ask Damon his thoughts, but apparently Parade magazine did.
“I found out they’re making another when somebody saw it on the Internet. Nobody bothered to call me. I’m not in it, but even so, they’ll work ‘Bourne’ into the title I guess. Universal just wants to call everything the Bourne something. So I guess they are trying to make another franchise and as they say, ‘It isn’t over until it’s over.'”
The actor doesn’t sound entirely pleased and he does sound cynical, but wasn’t he the same guy who essentially said, look our story is done here, the character has regained his memory, there’s no reason to go back here unless we’ve got a good script? Looks like Universal didn’t inform his agents officially, but Damon’s being somewhat coy as Gilroy’s been batted around internally for some months now (if we heard about this months before Gilroy was officially announced, he surely did too). Does the Uni kiss-off hurt Damon’s chances of coming back eventually? Probably not, as that would be at least several more years down the road and who knows what can change by then. Universal is currently eyeing an August 2012 release date for “The Bourne Legacy.” No cast has been announced yet.
