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Well, I’m excited by this breaking news. Universal is bringing back what it’s calling “the key screenwriter” behind the Bourne franchise to write the treatment for the fourquel, whose working title is the The Bourne Legacy. And he’s also writing what studio insiders are calling the “Bourne Bible”. Tony Gilroy, of course, was the key writer on The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. Frank Marshall and Pat Crowley are back to produce alongside Captivate Entertainment which is the Robert Ludlum estate production company led by Jeffrey Weiner and Ben Smith. (The pic won’t be based on the book The Bourne Legacy written by Eric Lustabader in Ludlum’s series.) Bourne 4 will have a 2012 release. No word yet on whether Matt Damon or Paul Greengrass will be back. (Matt has said he won’t do Bourne 4 unless Paul does. And Paul has said he’s not.) But I bet Gilroy’s involvement might lure at least Damon, who’d be an idiot not to continue the best role of his life — not to mention the best payday.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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I couldn’t agree with you more! I’m excited too—Damon IS Bourne and nobody else can do that role but him. I’m a BIG FAN of these movies and have seen them all a million times. OMFG! I hope Gilroy can charm Greengrass for the 4th one—Greengrass would be utterly STUPID not to at least consider this vehicle. I want more Bourne!!!!
Damon IS Bourne and nobody else can do that role but him”>
I couldn’t agree more. He IS Bourne; and I hope Paul change his mind.
I agree. Damon would be foolish not to reprise his most memorable role. The Bourne franchise is one of the most satisfying for moviegoers. How refreshing it is to experience a franchise that doesn’t involve vampires!
I am pleased there will be another Bourne movie Damon is good.Whilst I enjoy the movies I would prefer to have the film story more in tune with the books although I understand the need to avoid any actions that may create unpleasant reminders and / or encouragement of events like deplorable attacks by terorist activities. The later books written by Lustabader do not for me have the same ‘zing’ and seem to me to be over padder with detailed descriptions at the expense of a flowing story line.
Nikki,
You’re right on all counts. I’m betting Greengrass makes the film.
rhart
Im interested to hear more about this “Bourne Bible”
Tony’s deal on the third Bourne was 1 draft for 5 million and he
‘never had to have a conversation with Greengrass.’
Matt sides with Paul in the Tony/Paul war..which is perfect considering Gilroy was
the one that pushed to hire Paul for the 2nd Bourne.
If Universal was smart they’d have Tony write and direct..(there was talk that Tony had been offered a lot of money to write and direct Bond and passed)
most likely Matt would not agree to Tony helming.
But with Adjustment Bureau coming out in August..and if it’s not a hit,
Whitesell will definitely make the hard sell for MD to reevaluate.
I really admire Tony Gilroy’s work. This is great news. I’m bummed that “Duplicity” and “Michael Clayton” didn’t do better box office because I like them both. And his Bourne scripts are awesome!
Is this the re-boot that both Matt and Paul talked about or is this an actual sequel to the 3 previous ones?
They’ll keep upping Greengrass’s fee until he has no choice to say yes – the man needs a hit.
Matt will step into line for similar reasons.
The film will introduce a female version of Bourne played by Carey Mulligan who Jason (working for the CIA) is forced to track down and attempt to reprogram to bring into line.
Give it to Gilroy to direct; problem solved. He’s more than proven himself.
Exqueeze me….Duplicity?
What’s your point? It was a great movie.
Duplicity a ‘great movie’???? Based on what? The awful, awful, ending, or the fact that is was just plain snoring boring. I love Julie, and I absolutely love Clive. However, this movie sucked from beginning to end. Seriously.
Step down, Red… DUPLICITY rocked your world and you know it.
Even if you hated Duplicity, are you going to deny that it was exceptionally well shot and that Gilroy got great performances out of the leads? When have you seen Julia that alive in a movie in the last ten years?
And Michael Clayton was decent enough to garner Oscar noms for picture, writing, and directing.
But Matt’s quote may have gotten very high, no? Maybe time to break a lower cost newbie in the role?
I’m not sure that there is room enough for another Bourne movie. Damon (and Bourne) seems to have exhausted good-will by audiences with GREEN ZONE and the character which seemed fresh and new in the first film seems stale and tired now.
This is particularly true since audiences don’t seem to be able to buy into Hollywood’s fantasy of the CIA being the bad guys, a tired cliche fully 50 years old. When you’ve been using the same basic plot point for half a century, it gets really, really old.
I don’t think foreign rights will work either, to make this movie (a fairly predictable America-bashing piece of work) profitable. Today’s LAT story on the Blue Line contains the tidbit:
One pirate DVD (like Iron Man 2 !!!) for $5, or three for $10, or seven for $20. Vendors even have portable DVD players to tout the quality of their wares.
This is not in Beijing. Not in Bangkok. Not in Moscow, but in LA!
Studios are going to have produce movies a lot cheaper (bye bye expensive star-driven sequels) and give up rapidly eroding foreign revenue (anyway) for more broadly American appealing stuff at far cheaper price points.
Explain to me why Joe Consumer just won’t buy a cheap and easily available pirate DVD for $5 … when the movie is still playing? THAT is the price point to beat piracy.
And if you work back, it means far cheaper movies selling a lot more.
I predict Hollywood stupidity will get Bourne 4 made, and it will lose a ton of money. Not because the movie will be bad in and of itself but because the environment changed that rapidly from the first one (and what Studios know).
Another idiotic post by whiskey, who must secretly enjoy posting these brain “nummers”. Not one thing you said had any substance….as usual!!
I think the time has come to start a campaign forcing Nikki disallow the following genius’s from posting here ever again:
- whiskey
- Furious D
- anhonestanswer
Who’s with me?!?!?!
Um. Every Bourne movie has been an unmitigated success. Are you forced at gunpoint to write these consistently ridiculous, fact-free comments, or is it the result of a traumatic brain injury?
P.S. Not to mention: “Green Zone” wasn’t a Bourne movie. Seriously, do you have the ability to write one, single true thing?
I was so confused in the last one and nauseated from all that ridiculous editing…
‘Fourquel’ is the stupidest neologism I’ve heard in a long while; I hope its use and popularity is very limited.
Terrific, terrific screenwriter. Consistency, to me, has been a key to how well these movies have performed. For my personal taste, one is still the best – it’s the first, it felt the freshest (its “stripped down, physical vs. digital/fx approach” feeling like a welcome breath of fresh air at the time”) – even though the other two have strong merits, particularly that 15 minutes of action in part 3 that culminated in the bathroom fight, perhaps one of the ten best stretches of action in filmmaking history, IMO.
Felt like the book was closed even before two, as three was a little murky/a mixed bag of elements from the other two, i felt, but it worked nicely due to crisp direction/writing (and the aforementioned action sequence).
But I’d love it if Gilroy would write AND direct this. MICHAEL CLAYTON was robbed of a screenplay Oscar, at the least; i just loved the dialogue in that film. It’s actually one of the only movies I’ve seen twice in the theater in the last ten years. (Perhaps not coincidentally, i also saw BOURNE IDENTITY twice in theaters, which…just doesn’t happen anymore.)
Nope – MD is Jason Bourne – without question! MD will be back as Bourne and Greengrass will be back to direct – and it will be a big Bourne hit!
Sounding like Robert Duvall in ‘Network’!!!
I know I won’t watch a Bourne film without the combined involvement of Greengrass and Damon. They both made that trilogy work.
Bourne 1 was excellent. Bourne 2 (if you could stomach the Tourettes videography) was pretty good. But 3 pissed away most of the inventiveness and character good will with (as another commenter said) a very very tired, retread plot about the EVIL CIA. That was about as creatively bankrupt as one can get, at the level of basic cable MOW.
Gilroy did a great job with Michael Clayton — although he relies a bit too much on The Man as villain.
I actually hated the second one and found the third movie a welcome return to form. I’m leery of a fourth installment, though…
Yeah, THE MAN shouldn’t be exploited as an evil-doer b/c we all know the CIA and huge multinational corporations don’t do evil things- only in the movies. Please, you and numb-nuts/Whiskey are so blinded by your pro-American jingoism that you can’t allow for the truth to get in your way. THE MAN as villain? BP, Goldman Sachs, BOA, Halliburton, Blackwater- need I go on? The CIA- don’t even get me started.
Whiskey’s post was utter nonsense (no surprise, I know!) but when you’re desperate for attention…
Gilroy is god in my book –period. The best screenwriter since Steven Zallian. Yes Duplicity was a mistake, but if that’s the worst thing he ever does in his career he’ll still be a great talent.
Michael Clayton cemented Gilroy’s directing chop in my book. I’d trust him with pretty much anything after that. Especially Bourne 4.
And to LordJiggy, assailing those in power –especially the CIA!– is not only virtuous storytelling, but it’s damned entertaining too. That well will NEVER run dry. Hope Gilroy and others keep it up.
Hey Jay — You wrote, “Assailing those in power –especially the CIA!– is not only virtuous storytelling but it’s damned entertaining too. That well will NEVER run dry.”
Do these words apply to our sitting president? Be honest here, Jay — Do you really think you’re capable of finding a suspense movie assailing Barack Obama to have “virtuous storytelling” and to be “damned entertaining”?
Michael Clayton needed to SHOW, not tell in a BIG way. Just like Mamet and too many other screenwriters that direct, when Tony Gilroy helms a movie he falls in love with his dialogue and his actors’ performances, keeps all his babies when he should have banished them to the Mac trash bin and forgets ye olde “Show don’t Tell” rule. See also: Syriana (Steven Gaghan).
IMHO, fwiw.
Okay so a 4th Bourne would be a success if Gilroy, Greengrass and Damon were all on board, or at least a success from a financial perspective. But why bother, the three Bourne movies worked nicely and adding any more seems just like money grabbing tactics.
I love that everyone is forgetting (including you, Nikki) that Doug Liman is to thank for this entire franchise. He directed the first one, discovered Matt Damon as action hero, and set the tone for the entire series. Crazy, sure, but talented! Now if he could only get rid of that idiot David Bartis, he might actually get somewhere.
I love the Bourne movies except for one thing: The herky-jerky editing by Greengrass. IT IS NOT NEEDED. All it does is make me close my eyes during the chase scenes. I WILL NOT SEE THIS MOVIE IF GREENGRASS DIRECTS IT. PERIOD. Also, Damon better be slim and not fat in this one. And a woman agent would be sweet! BUT NO HAND HELD CAMERAS DURING CHASE or FIGHT SCENES!!!! It ruins the whole fucking movie. I can not say that enough.
Please let this happen! I would pay way more than 3D prices for a new Bourne film.
I just hope they really use Julia Stiles this time around. It seems to me a waste of talent to have her in such a small roll time and time again.
Julia had a pivotal part in Supremacy and her interactions with Matt were great; I agree that they should expand that for the next film.
why is Damon an idiot if he doesn’t reprise his role yet again? He has more money than he ever will need. He is an actor so possibly he likes to do new/interesting roles. Many other reasons too. Him choosing to do or not do JB4 has nothing to do with being an idiot
It is my understanding that Gilroy and Greengrass had a famous argument/falling out at the onset of the third Bourne film. Personally, I think that them getting him to write 4 means that they must have told him that if he does a great job they’ll give him a shot to direct. If a solid draft comes in that Damon loves I am sure he’ll sign off on Gilroy directing regardless of his Greengrass relationship. Gilroy has proven himself a great director. Bourne 3, the one that strayed from Gilroy’s involvement almost completely was clearly the weakest. Also, Green Zone and its costly reshoots (which Uni leveraged to get Greengrass and Damon signed on for another Bourne at the time) was a mess. That script needed Tony Gilroy’s hand. Perhaps the Uni execs are now finally seeing the true value-added player on the Bourne team was indeed Gilroy while Greengrass took credit/glory.