Matt Damon In Talks To Replace Ryan Gosling On The Daniels' Next Movie

After Ryan Gosling (“Project Hail Mary”) had recently exited the new feature film from the filmmaking duo “The Daniels,” behind the Oscar-winning mind-bending action comedy “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” but it looks like the project is getting a shot in the arm with “The Odyssey” star Matt Damon and Universal Pictures reportedly circling the project.

This exciting update, hailing from Deadline, mentions that Damon is currently in talks to star in the pic, replacing Gosling, with Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert taking on creative duties on the film. Nobody really should be shocked by the level of talent the mysterious project is beind able to attract, given The Daniels’ last movie at the 2022 Academy Awards ceremony won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Best Supporting Actress went to Jamie Lee Curtis, Ke Huy Quan after coming out of retirement landed the Best Supporting Actor statue, and the duo also walked away with Best Original Screenplay, too.

Sadly, we’re still in the dark about what this new movie is going to be about, but it’s part of an overall deal between the filmmakers and the studio. Kwan, Scheinert, and Jonathan Wang will produce via their banner Playgrounds. Playgrounds’ Kwan and Wang were behind the doc “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist” that was released by Universal’s Focus Features back in March.

Most will be familiar that Damon and Universal previously worked together on the “Bourne” franchise alongside Christopher Nolan‘s ambitious Greek myth epic, arriving in July. Speaking of which, another “Bourne” installment has been quietly evolving behind the scenes, and there had been some early interest from/reach out to in-demand German director Edward Berger.

Some of the most recent credits for the Boston actor have been the Netflix crime thriller “The Rip,” co-starring with longtime pal/creative partner Ben Affleck, the Doug Liman-directed heist comedy “The Instigators,” and a meaty part in Nolan’s R-rated Best Picture Oscar winner atomic bomb drama, “Oppenheimer,” which ended up earning Universal a massive $975.8 million at the global box office. Universal getting back into business with Matt Damon feels like the right move.

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“The Odyssey,” the latest collaboration between Damon and Universal, is set to be unleashed in theaters and on the IMAX format (the first big scripted event movie to be entirely shot with IMAX cameras) on July 17.