[Movies] Universal Chairman Says Bourne Franchise Will Continue
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 02.25.2013
With or without Matt Damon...
In the lead-up to The Bourne Legacy's release last year, there was a lot of discussion about the possibility of Jeremy Renner and Matt Damon's characters teaming up for a fifth film. While both actors have seemed open to the possibility, Damon has also said that there are some issues with the elements introduced in Legacy that changes the game. Damon had noted that the drug-related aspects of Legacy's Operation Outcome will "make it harder for us to make another one...I'm just trying to figure out like... Because they used our characters, anything that happens in that world, that's the Bourne world now. So the pill popping and all that stuff happens."
Now, Universal has said that they will move forward and are happy with the financial performance of Legacy, noting that they are willing to move forward even if Damon isn't. Universal chairman Adam Fogelson told The Hollywood Reporter, "The point of the last movie was to create a universe, a world and characters that give us a lot of freedom and flexibility in how we go forward. Yeah, the movie didn't perform the way the last one did. It also didn't cost what the last one did. It performed more along the lines of how the first one did. I absolutely see us doing more Bourne, 100 percent yes. Matt has talked about the possibility of coming back, and we totally respect that and are excited if and when he wants to have conversations. But I think the last movie gave us a big bunch of options to pursue a next chapter."
Where and when the next one might begin production is, of course, dependent on what happens with Damon, Renner and Rachel Weisz, among others.
