Matt Damon and Academy Award-winning director Edward Berger appear to be getting closer, or at least slightly closer, to cracking a new “Jason Bourne” movie. Damon says the two are actively discussing the project, trying to nail down its story, and now have “a line of sight” on how to bring Bourne back.
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Berger is the acclaimed German filmmaker behind “All Quiet on the Western Front,” “Conclave,” and last year’s Colin Farrell-led “Ballad of a Small Player.” He also directed the Benedict Cumberbatch limited series “Patrick Melrose” and episodes of “The Terror” and “Your Honor.”
Asked during an appearance on ESPN’s “The Rich Eisen Show” whether he was still interested in playing Jason Bourne, Damon immediately answered, “Sure. Yeah.”
“I’m talking to—there’s a great director named Ed Berger,” Damon said. “He did ‘All Quiet on the Western Front.’ He’s a wonderful director, and we’re talking about it. We’re just trying to figure out—we’re trying to nail the story down. Because I’d love to do it.”
The difficulty has never been Damon’s willingness to return so much as finding a story that justifies it. As The Playlist reported in 2023, Damon and longtime “Bourne” producer Frank Marshall had already spent several years attempting to generate another installment themselves, working through multiple versions with “The Bourne Ultimatum” screenwriter Scott Z. Burns. The trio kept tinkering with the material but never cracked the story they wanted to tell, and Burns eventually moved on to other projects.
Given those earlier failed attempts, Damon’s “line of sight” comment carries a little more weight, and it arguably suggests that he and Berger may have finally found an approach that eluded Damon, Marshall, and Burns.
Damon explained that another installment would need to capture what worked about the first three films while finding somewhere genuinely new to take the character.
“If we do it, we want it to be like the first three,” he explained. “It’s not built like a James Bond, where every movie is its own mission.”
Unlike Bond, whose individual adventures can largely stand alone, Bourne’s story has unfolded as a continuous narrative. Damon said that makes extending the franchise without repeating earlier films particularly difficult.
“It’s a linear story,” he continued. “It makes it more challenging to do a sequel where you’re giving people what they want, but also enough new stuff. You know what I mean? It’s a tricky one.”
Berger has expressed the same concern. The filmmaker previously said he would only make the movie if Damon returned and if they could add something new to the franchise rather than retread what earlier filmmakers had already done. The Playlist also reported that Joe Barton, creator of “Black Doves,” had written a more recent draft, although the project had not received a green light.
Still, Damon sounded as though the conversations with Berger had produced more than another round of general interest.
“Well, I hope we can crack it,” he said. “I think we have a line of sight on how to do it.”
Damon last played the character in 2016’s “Jason Bourne.” Ten years later, the question is no longer whether he wants to return, but whether he and Berger can finally crack the story.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2007. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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