While Universal is hot for a new Bourne movie, development has been slow – to say the least. There’s been script problems that led Paul Greengrass to drop out of the project. Star Matt Damon has said that he’ll only do the movie with Greengrass, but he’s still sticking around the property, so either he’s changed his mind or he really believes Greengrass will be back.
At any rate, Damon tells Empire that while his next Bourne film is at least five years out, Universal might be looking to seal the gap with a Young Jason Bourne movie. “There’ll probably be a prequel of some kind with another actor and another director before we do another one,” he said to the magazine.
That sounds incredibly optimistic to me. And sort of naive. The reality here is that Universal won’t be spending to do a one-off Bourne prequel – they’ll turn this into a reboot, which is becoming ever so popular for fresh franchises. Especially if this ‘prequel’ makes some cash; everyone involved will be cheaper than a Matt Damon coming back for the fourth round and a Greengrass coming back for a third.
But maybe being on the inside has given Damon some insight into this decision that those of us who just consume the movies don’t have. Maybe there really will be a one-off Bourne prequel, possibly even one that paves the well for Jason Bourne to return to action in the modern day in the next film. I just wouldn’t count on it.