Earlier this week, we broke the news that Paul Greengrass had walked away from the fourth installment of the lucrative Bourne franchise. The key sticking point seemed to be that Universal went out and had gotten a second script written without informing Greengrass (and to the one or two writers who continue not to acknowledge our existence on this story, yes scripts do exist).
Earlier today, we speculated on who might be a good fit to fill in the director’s chair but that’s just wishful thinking, because in a recent interview with Matt Damon he confirmed he won’t do the next Bourne film without Greengrass. Speaking at a press junket for “Invictus” Damon confirmed Greengrass’ exit but left the door open saying he might return:
How does the departure of Paul [Greengrass] influence the 4th Bourne movie?
MATT DAMON: I’ll just wait for him and when he wants to do one, we’ll do it.
Are you saying it’s Greengrass or no Bourne? DAMON: Yeah, I’ve always said that. But I think it will happen down the road. We just don’t have a [ready] script right now.
So what does this mean? It’s possibly less Greengrass quitting and more him showing the studio he’s got them by the balls as Damon will wait for him. Echoing what we wrote in our original report saying that this move might simply be temporary, Damon thinks Greeengrass will eventually come back. “Paul’s got to go to work, you know? He’s ready to do another job, and [Bourne] wasn’t the right job now,” Damon told EW, hinting at Greengrass’ next move because the ‘Bourne’ scripts are ready. “I get it. I wouldn’t do it without him but I don’t feel like he’s done with it totally. I think he’d change his mind if a good script came along. If there was a great Bourne idea, he would love to do it. It’s a big part of his life, too. We’re still going to keep working together — and hopefully on another Bourne movie too.”
Greengrass’ exit means that he’s going to leverage his ties to Damon in order to get the script that he wants. Damon’s comment that “we don’t have a script right now” seem to say that he’s not even going to bother reading it unless Greengrass is happy with it first. Universal had better start making nice with Greengrass.
As for Universal, they don’t want to drag this out too long. Having been sold this week by GE to Comcast, their new owners probably don’t want one of the studio’s most valuable franchises to fall by the wayside. That said, if the hugely expensive “Green Zone” doesn’t perform, Greengrass might have a bunch of crow to eat if he wants back in to the Bourne series. Either way though, it sounds like the director either has found a new project, we’ve already hinted at one biopic that’s a possibility, or he’s just dangling that in front of Universal as a warning.