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Before Tony Gilroy and Jeremy Renner went out and made The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass tried for years to get a fourth Bourne movie off the ground and into production. Damon revealed in a recent interview with Deadline that he even approached The Dark Knight writer Jonathan Nolan to come up with a story. When asked what it would take to see him reprise his role in the franchise he said,
Just a couple things, really. Paul Greengrass has to want to do it, and secondly and equally important, it comes down to Paul and I knowing what the hell we want to do. We just don’t have a story, and we haven’t had one. I quietly went to Jonah Nolan, because he and his brother Chris did such a brilliant job on Batman and that whole mythology. I just said, can you put your brain on this? I can’t figure it out. And he took a run at it and he couldn’t crack it either. Paul and I have been talking about it for years. And we can’t quite see what the movie would be. If we could get line of sight on that…
Nolan seems like a really talented guy and has written scripts for The Prestige, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises. For some reason he just wasn't able to crack the story for a fourth Bourne film. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be. The Bourne Legacy was ok, but it was really kind of a pointless film. Damon goes on to say though that he'd love to make another film, of course it'd have to be under the right circumstances,
Neither of us is against it. I would love to do another one. I love that character. To me, the reason to make that movie is because people want to see it. Paul and I have said that to each other. We don’t take for granted the fact that we’ve built an audience for Bourne, that’s a real privilege. But our part of that bargain is that the movie is good and belongs with the other three. Until we can deliver that, we just can’t make it.
I think it's really interesting that he never brings up The Bourne Legacy. It's like if they do make another film, he doesn't want that one to be part of the story. It's hard to think that another Bourne movie with Damon will actually happen, but never say never, because you never know... it just might.
