14 DAY TRIAL // A little over a month ago, Matt Damon was speaking of a new Jason Bourne film, thus offering eager fans a vague idea about what might lie ahead of them in terms of the much-mediated follow-up in the franchise. In between then and the other day, the actor seems to have had a change of heart, saying in an interview in the latest issue of Parade that he believes a much younger actor would be needed for the role.
As we also told you at the time, Damon first said that it would make sense if the fourth Bourne film was a prequel or a reboot, thus preparing fans, unbeknownst to them, for the bomb that he’d drop later on. Regardless of whether the fourth film is a prequel or a reboot, Damon will not be appearing in it: he’s too old and has done all he can for the character to see the need to return to it, he states.
“I think there’s a good way to do a prequel with someone else, but not me. What any studio is interested in is making a franchise like Bourne an evergreen that can just go on and on. With me playing him, Bourne got his memory back three times. So I don’t think anybody wants to see me say ‘I don’t remember’ again. But you could do a prequel with another actor being the first Bourne before his identity gets passed on to me. In fact, why not two or three? As for me coming back to do him again, I’m just saying no,” Damon reveals for the latest issue of Parade.
This is exactly the same statement he made back in February, the only difference being that he’s a bit more specific about the possibility of returning to the part now. “There’ll probably be a prequel of some kind with another actor and another director before we do another one, just because I think we’re probably another five years away from doing it – we’ve got to get a script,” Damon was saying back then, as we also reported.
None of the above, though, has managed to put an end to rumors that director Paul Greengrass and Damon, on one side, and the movie studio, on the other, might have had a fallout that led to the change in direction, by going with a different actor. Fans of the duo should not be weeping for spilt milk: their latest project together is “The Green Zone,” now playing in theaters.