"Matt! Come back! Don't go, Jeremy, we love you too! Can't we keep them all?"
Matt Damon made it pretty clear that as long as director Paul Greengrass wasn’t involved, he didn’t want to have anything to do with the “Bourne” franchise. That paved the way for Jeremy Renner to move into the lead role of the next “Bourne” film, with longtime Bourne screenwriter Tony Gilroy also directing.
With the film’s release a little over a month away, Empire magazine talked to Renner, Gilroy, and producer Frank Marshall about the new Bourne universe adventure. Renner said this about his character, Aaron Cross:
“…coming from a completely different background to Jason [Bourne]. He knows exactly who he is; he signed up to this…He wants to be part of a team. I can tell you he was in the military then he joined the [program]. He’s a person who wants to be part of something… to have a sense of purpose. But then it’s taken away.”
So that leaves plenty of ammunition for future Cross/Bourne movies. No, I have no idea how the titles would progress once Cross is established and Bourne isn’t in the picture. Unless, as producer Frank Marshall hopes, they can get both Bourne and Cross together….
“You see there are several different [programs] in the movie with different skill sets. All possibilities are open. My dream is that in the next one we see Matt and Jeremy team up.”
Well, that is a nice dream. But I don’t know if Damon will ever soften his stance about having Greengrass direct, and I don’t know if Greengrass will ever change his mind about not coming back. I believe Greengrass and Gilroy had issues with each other so having Gilroy now take over the directing might have really turned off Greengrass, and in turn, the very loyal Damon. I think, though, that Damon would be open to returning to a character he seemed to enjoy playing, if the circumstances were right, like if there was another director altogether (“Matt, you pick, anyone you want”) and a good script. Then, maybe…
