Oh babe! Then it fell apart. But if there is indeed a new Jason Bourne thriller on the horizon, I would definitely stand in line for this. Who knows? Secrets and lies abound in the spy universe.
DEVELOPMENT HELL AGAIN?
Matt Damon first played Jason Bourne, the amnesiac CIA superspy/assassin from the novels of Robert Ludlum, in The Bourne Identity (2002). He followed that in two sequels, The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Although he opted out of a fourth film in the profitable franchise, The Bourne Legacy (2012) got made anyway, with Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, another superspy/assassin. Then, coaxed out of “retirement,” he starred in the fifth film, titled simply, Jason Bourne (2016), which did fairly well both critically and financially. Still, that was eight years ago, and it did not appear that another sequel was in the cards—until recently.
A little over a year ago word surfaced that a sixth film was in development. It even had a title: The Bourne Dilemma. A few months later we learned that Matt Damon was excited about being involved. Everything looked to be on course for a tentative 2025 release. A teaser trailer even appeared, and how can you have a trailer if a film was not at least in production?
However—and that is a big However—a little over a month ago the film’s director reported that progress had stalled in what is known as “development hell,” and it did not look like they were going to proceed with the project. That did not bode well for the series.
But, you ask, what about the trailer? I checked it out on YouTube, and all I saw were snippets from previous films. Nothing new here; they even misspelled “Dilemma” (one “m”).
Yes, I am disappointed, but there are worse things in life, right? Still, I hope they can get the project back on track before Matt Damon requires a walker.
I had not heard about any potential sequel (with or without Matt Damon) until reading this post. Now, I can process hope and disappointment in the same few minutes!
That said, I did like the “Bourne Legacy” movie better than many people seem to and hoped for another one there, as well. But I did have a problem with just how helpless everybody acted when the one doctor/researcher started shooting everybody in the lab. I mean, he even ran out of bullets and had to reload… at which point I would have hit him over the head with the heaviest thing I could have grabbed between wherever I had been hiding and him. I still might have ended up dead, but at least I would have tried something. Beyond that, I agree with a few quibbles people had with the film, but no movie is perfect.
The same can be said about “Jason Bourne,” which had its issues, but I think it would have been interesting to see how an aging JB (and MD) would have handled whatever challenges presented themselves in a new sequel. There was a bit of that in the last movie, but that was indeed eight years ago, and none of us is getting any younger.
It’s unfortunate that the few “aging” action stars we have at the moment are often consigned to making B-grade (or less) films. A new Bourne film could have been an A-list movie for a change.
Who knows, Kate, maybe it will still get made. The workings of Hollywood are often hard to fathom.