As millions of moviegoers have learned over the past decade, Jason Bourne is a lethal superspy with deadly hands and an empty memory. Recruited, trained and left for dead, he has spent three hit movies searching for the answers behind his true identity. These days, fans of the "Bourne" franchise are keeping their fingers crossed for a fourth installment — but recent developments have left them nearly as confused as their hero.
In an interview with MTV News on Friday (December 4), series star Matt Damon said he has no doubt that he'll one day be killing enemies with hardcover books and ballpoint pens again soon — as long as the studio agrees to a package deal.
"Yeah, I'm less nervous about it [than most people]," Damon told us. "I think it's going to happen someday."
The star is reacting, of course, to the news that broke earlier this week that director Paul Greengrass has walked away from "Bourne 4." Reminded that Greengrass has said he's not interested in returning at this point, Damon was quick to punctuate only one element of that statement.
"At this point, yeah," the star agreed.
Nevertheless, Damon is convinced that the mastermind behind the last two "Bourne" flicks will come back, once a strong enough script is developed.
"It's gotta happen — we've just got to get a script, and we don't have one," Damon said, perhaps still smarting along with his director after their experience filming much of 2007's "The Bourne Ultimatum" with a written-on-the-fly script. "So embarking on something and aiming at a release date without any story would just be too risky."
As you might have noticed, Damon keeps saying "we" in regard to the film — and, asked whether this means that he'll only do the film with Greengrass, Damon set all his cards on the table.
"Just Paul," Damon explained. "I wouldn't do it with anybody else."
The actor — who can be seen next week in Clint Eastwood's drama "Invictus" — said he and Greengrass will continue to be a package deal. And the main reason for that, he explained, is that they've both worked too hard on the previous films to go out on a sour note.
"We don't want to risk [the franchise]; we really love it, we love the character and the three films. Doug Liman did the first one, and Paul did the second two," Damon said. "There's no reason to mess with it, unless you have a really good one to follow it up with."
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