As Greengrass Abandons Bourne, Green Zone Moves to Fill the Gap
Posted 02.27.10 by reelz
It had been rumored earlier, but now Paul Greengrass, who directed both The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, has definitively announced that he is putting the franchise behind him. Fans had been holding out hope that he might still return if the story were right. But that's just not going to happen, the director says in an interview with CHUD.
I have moved on. I … thought I could find a way to get engaged and make [a fourth Bourne film], [but] I thought in my head there were so many other things and films I wanted to make. I didn't have the fire in my belly. Not that I don't like Jason Bourne, not that I'm not extremely grateful to the franchise, not that I'm extremely close to the studio — there were no arguments. I didn't feel like I had anything else to contribute. It just happens with franchises; you get to a point where you feel like you've done it.
Still, he goes on to say that he wouldn't stand in the way of someone else taking the franchise in a new direction. Indeed, there have been hints of a Bourne prequel, with some actor other than Matt Damon in the title role.
Fans of Damon as Bourne do have something to look forward too, and soon. In what looks to be a very Bourne-like action flick, the Greengrass-directed Green Zone, he plays a soldier on the quickly-evaporating trail of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. And in a new set of clips and some behind-the-scenes footage from the movie, we see Damon unraveling the spider web of deception surrounding his mission and, as always, bringing on the action.
Next Showing: Green Zone hits theaters March 12, 2010