The gods of I.P. demand that a good franchise cannot die. So Universal is trying to concoct a way to bring the “Jason Bourne” franchise back to life with a new filmmaker.
Deadline reports that “All Quiet On The Western Front” filmmaker Edward Berger has been tapped to direct a fifth “Jason Bourne” film. The catch is, however, that no other creatives or actors are attached to the project, including Matt Damon or a writer. The hope is that Berger and perhaps a writer can come up with a pitch that will entice Damon to star, and one supposes that this is not the first time Hollywood has tried the backward-ass way of getting a project off the ground.
READ MORE: ‘Bourne’ Producer Says The Hunt Is On For A New Filmmaker To Continue The Franchise
From the sounds of it, Berger would direct and oversee the project’s development, so he may be instrumental in who they hire for the script and probably has some strong ideas to go forward with. The project is said to be in “early development.”
As Deadline notes, Damon is picky, and “everything has to be executed perfectly for Damon even to consider coming back to the franchise, and that starts with a great script and story, and so as of right now, no commitment from him until all of that is in place.”
Still, Berger has a lot of heat after directing the WWI drama, “All Quiet On The Western Front,” which was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won three, including Best International Feature Film, and Universal seems excited, so fingers crossed.
The fifth film in the franchise, 2016’s “Jason Bourne,” was directed by Paul Greengrass again, following Greengrass and Damon’s exit on a planned “Jason Bourne 4” film they bailed on in 2009. At the time, Universal pivoted to “The Bourne Legacy” with Tony Gilroy and Jeremy Renner in the lead, but that film failed to take off, leaving Damon and Greengrass seemingly one more opportunity to cap off the series.
The film did well, earning $415.5 million worldwide, but not exceptional, grossing only $162.4 million in the United States and Canada, only the third-highest in the franchise’s history. Clearly, Universal still feels like there is an appetite for more.
