Matt Damon Won't Return For New 'Bourne' Film

Good and bad news for action fans: the new Bourne film is being made, but Jason Bourne won't be in it.

"Of course, Jason Bourne is still alive and out there in the world. I don't want to go beyond that, because the last thing I need is for every blogger to be second guessing," Tony Gilroy said on Deadline.com. The screenwriter of the first three films in the franchise, Gilroy has been tapped to write and direct The Bourne Legacy.

Unfortunately, Matt Damon will not return to play the titular character. Damon, who withdrew from the earlier-planned fourth film after the studio cut out the director of the second and third movies, Barney Greengrass, loyally stated that he would not do the film unless Greengrass helmed. "Matt was completely not an option, and personally I couldn't imagine trying to replace him," Gilroy said. "These are very un-cynical, honest movies, and I don't know another actor who brings more integrity and dignity and a lack of cynicism to his work than Matt."

But rather than kill off or recast Jason Bourne, Gilroy's movie will instead take place on the fringes of the same universe. "Everything you saw in the first three films actually happened," he said. "We're going to show you the bigger picture, the bigger canvas." Gilroy, who made his directorial debut with Michael Clayton, never expected to be working on another Bourne film.

When the studio first approached, he told them, "I don't have anything for you." But inspiration intervened. "I hit a vein, and ended up delivering way more than I thought," he said. "I came up with the whole thing and if it wasn't a swinging idea, I wouldn't have signed on to direct." –AMY LEE

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