A couple of weeks back Gael Garcia Bernal was offered the role of a super-assassin hunting down Jason Bourne in The Bourne Ultimatum, Paul Greengrass’ second go round with Matt Damon as the amnesiac super-spy. Yesterday was the New York City press day for Bernal’s newest film, Babel, which reteams him with his Amores Perros director Alejandro González Iñárritu, and I asked him what was up with Bourne.
“I love those movies,” he told me, but he won’t be taking the role. The reason, he said is that he’s finishing up his directorial debut, Deficit, a film about some rich boys who learn some tough lessons. It’s a vague description, but Bernal says that because he’s basically rewriting the film in the editing room.
It’s a bummer that Bernal is out of the running since I wanted to have my general belief that the world of cloak and dagger black ops is populated by very beautiful people. Greengrass is going to have to find someone soon – the movie is filming as we speak.