"You see there are several different programmes in the movie with different skill sets. All possibilities are open. My dream is that in the next one we see Matt [Damon] and Jeremy [Renner] team up," producer Frank Marshall said prior to the release of "The Bourne Legacy." But he's unlikely to see that scenario happen now. While Damon had kept his options somewhat open when asked about returning for a possible 'Bourne 5' — "If we can make one where we go into it feeling it can be even better than those, and it ends up being in that same ballpark, then we should do it. But If we can't, then we really should leave it alone," he said this summer — it looks like he's firmly closing the door.
The folks over at Movieline recently caught up with the actor, and while he hasn't seen "The Bourne Legacy" yet, from what he knows of the approach, he doesn't think Jason Bourne can come back in a standalone movie, and he effectively says he's not interested in another entry if it will cross over into the world spun by the fourth film's writer/director Tony Gilroy.
"…from what I understand, it kind of relives ["The Bourne Ultimatum"] from a different perspective," he said about "The Bourne Legacy." "What that means, because they use our actors and characters, is that whatever they said [in 'Legacy'] is true and so we'd have to acknowledge it in any Bourne movie that we'd do. And that makes it really tough."
He also adds, with a bit of joke: "I don't think we can do the 'Dallas' it-was-all-a-dream scenario. I don't think the audience would go for that after they paid money to see a movie."
It's hardly a surprise at this point. Damon reiterates that he wouldn't do it anyway without Paul Greengrass, and says that since Bourne now knows his identity, finding a fresh story makes it "a real struggle to extend the franchise." And while the pair have long said they would like to come back, the franchise seems to have found a way to move on without them. Indeed, Marshall has already said a follow-up would track Renner and Rachel Weisz's character, who we last see fleeing on a boat in 'Legacy.'
Jason Bourne may have been alive at the end of 'Ultimatum,' but it seems his fate will be left on the smile of Julia Stiles.
