Matt Damon is to play superspy Jason Bourne for the fourth time and the new movie is to be released later this year.
It will be simply called ‘Jason Bourne’ and it is thought that it will be the last in the franchise. It will see Bourne drawn out of the shadows and brought face to face with lethal enemies.
Paul Greengrass is the director, having previously been at the helm for The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, so it is in capable hands. Joining Damon on screen will be Alicia Vikander, as well as Julia Stiles once more. Tommy Lee Jones is aboard and his character seems to be a CIA boss.
Other plot details are sketchy at the moment as the project is still in post-production.
Damon played against type for the first one, The Bourne Identity, in 2001 and gained a legion of fans with his depiction of the lethal agent with memory loss. Back then the idea of Damon as an action star was scoffed at but the brutal weapon that the character of Bourne is changed all that.
The Bourne franchise even spawned a spin off movie called the ‘Bourne Legacy’ in 2012. It starred Jeremy Renner but floundered as it was minus Damon as Bourne. It was like a Bond movie without James Bond.
Matt Damon, who is now 45, has had recent success playing Mark Watney in The Martian. The star has taken lots of diverse roles over the last few years. He played Liberace’s lover in TV movie ‘Behind the Candelabra’ alongside Michael Douglas in 2013, as well as a soldier in ‘The Monuments Men’ in 2014 and a family man in ‘We Bought a Zoo’ in 2011.
Unlike his friend Ben Affleck, Damon has steered clear of the superhero genre and is able to go between comedies and action films, as well as science fiction ones. It has been nine years since the last Bourne movie in 2007. In ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ Jason Bourne dodges a ruthless CIA official and his agents from a new assassination program while searching for the origins of his life as a trained killer.
The busy actor has three other films in post-production. They being crime mystery ‘Suburbicon’ that is being directed by his regular collaborator George Clooney; a mystery film centred around the Great Wall of China called ‘The Great Wall’ alongside Willem Dafoe; and social satire ‘Downsizing’ alongside Reese Witherspoon about a man who realises he would have a better life if he were to shrink himself.
Jason Bourne is due for release this April. A teaser trailer and poster have wetted fans’ appetites. “I know who I am. I remember everything,” says Bourne in the trailer that promises plenty of mayhem and action.
