Bourne Again?

Empire magazine ganged up on actor Matt Damon last night at the premiere of Invictus with some colourful language (only joking!) and pressed him for a Bourne franchise update. Everybody knows Paul Greengrass has walked away from it. And quite rightly. The Bourne Ultimatum ended perfectly with the mystery man back in the water and swimming away into cinema history to Moby’s Extreme Ways. Of course Universal don’t see that way. They want to milk the teet of the cash cow some more. Damon told them:

“There’ll probably be a prequel of some kind with another actor and another director before we do another one,” he said, “just because I think we’re probably another five years away from doing it – we’ve got to get a script…”

Was he humouring them, yanking their crank, jerking their chain, starting a rumour or letting slip a not so cryptic clue as to what’s happening? You decide. Where could Bourne go but backwards into his life as a government assassin? It is an intriguing prospect, but the success of the original films was down to its indie aesthetic, off-kilter generic acknowledgments and twisty-turny plot. What can the new Bourne film be other than man-on-a-mission gubbins?

Tags: Bourne Identity, Matt Damon, paul greengrass