With Jason Bourne in 2016 Matt Damon remarked the territory, after the attempt to reboot the saga with Jeremy Renner. Bourne was only from Matt… and director Paul Greengrass.
With the last chapter of the Bourne trilogy released in 2007, it looked just like that Matt Damon was intending to leave the role forever of the out-of-control, amnesiac spy conceived by the pen of Robert Ludlum. There had also been an attempt in 2012 reboot con Jeremy RennerBut in the end Damon returned in 2016 with the movie Jason Bournestill directed by his partner Paul Greengrass. But how did this reunion, not at all obvious?
Jason Bourne, the fourth chapter as a matter of principle
Matt Damon he had played the ex-spy Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity (2002), The Bourne Supremacy (2004) e The Bourne Ultimatum (2007): after the first adaptation of the novels by Robert Ludlum had been signed by Doug Limanwas the extraordinary and tense direction of Paul Greengrass to grow the saga in the hearts of the public, in the name of a thriller cinema with physical action, concrete, made up of stunt doubles, stunts and real car chases, without CGI. Damon’s intention was to leave the character after Ultimatum, but the Universal took a false step.
In fact, in 2012 it arrived in theaters The Bourne Legacydirected by Tony Gilroywho had collaborated on the screenplays of the previous films, but starred this time by Jeremy Renneras another ex-agent modified by a special training program. Until a few years ago, it seemed that Damon was about to fold, willing to return only if Greengrass directed the film, but for some reason Universal decided instead to I’ll score your Gilroy and do without the duet that had brought luck to the series. The Renner version of Bourne didn’t catch on: for a 125 million dollar budget, he brought home only 276 (when Ultimatum had recorded 444!).
What happened? It sure didn’t breathe a good air in between Gilroy e Damonso much so that the latter once, discussing the first draft of the script of Ultimatum, said: “I could have sold it on Ebay and that would have been the end of that there. It’s terrible, really embarrassing.” (the statement was released by MSN.com).
The fact is that, after the non-enthusiastic reception given to Legacy, Universal retraced its steps and in 2014 announced the new Bourne with Damon directed by Greengrass (and without any involvement of Gilroy): even the major postponed the expected sequel to the reboot with Renner, in theory to be released in 2016 to be directed by Justin Lin, in order to have Matt & Paul back on board. For the occasion Damon tried to get back into the best physical shape possible, between exercise and diet, finding the role physically demanding, having by then passed forty. To mark the particularity of this return, after having meditated on titles such as “The Bourne Betrayal” and “The Bourne Resurgence”, a different path was chosen, giving the film simply the character namesymbolically: for Damon and Greengrass in fact at that point the protagonist was returned to himself in all respects, knowing everything about his past, and the circle was closed. For a budget of 120 million dollars, Jason Bourne took home 415,500,000 at the worldwide box office: the “supremacy” has been reiterated, but according to several fans of the saga without the original freshness. Perhaps this is also the reason why there has been no return to the brand in the following years, neither with Damon nor with Renner?
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