Matt Damon Teases Return As Jason Bourne In Super Bowl Spot
Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass will reunite for the fifth installment in the Jason Bourne franchise this July, and Universal released a teaser for the anticipated Jason Bourne film during Super Bowl on Sunday, check it out below. Greengrass directed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and Damon starred in the first three films.
Bourne 5 finds the super spy in a story that has been described as “drawing influence from the Edward Snowden controversy,” per Deadline. Tommy Lee Jones, Alicia Vikander, Vincent Cassel, Julia Stiles, and Ato Essandoh also star in a script co-written by Greengrass, Christopher Rouse and Damon. Frank Marshall and Jeffrey Weiner will produce for Captivate Entertainment with Greengrass, Damon, Greg Goodman and Ben Smith also producing and Rouse and Henry Morrison executive producing.
First look at @jasonbourne movie revealed during #SB50. #Bourne https://t.co/zElqPuJlSd https://t.co/76mYqDaDBs
— TheWrap (@TheWrap) February 8, 2016
The Bourne films series has earned over a billion dollars at the global boxoffice. The action thriller centers on a CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss who will stop at nothing to figure out who he is. The film is based on the Bourne book series by author Robert Ludlum. All three of Ludlum’s novels were adapted for the big screen, starring Matt Damon as the title character in each. Doug Liman directed The Bourne Identity (2002), and Tony Gilroy co-wrote the first three films and directed The Bourne Legacy (2012). Damon chose not to return for Legacy, and the character of Jason Bourne does not appear in the fourth installment, he’s only mentioned.
Back in 2011, Matt, Gilroy and Greengrass had a public falling out over the project, with Damon attacking the screenwriter in the pages of GQ magazine, accusing him of writing an “unreadable,” THR reported. A source with knowledge of the conflict explained that Paul and Tony’s clashing creative styles was the root of riff in the franchise.
“Paul and Tony have clashing styles,” says a source with knowledge of the conflict. “Tony does all the work before and delivers a finished script. Paul wants the script to be ever-evolving during shooting.”
Last year, Damon spoke about how he and Paul thought it best to let some time past, and let the political landscape of the world change, before reuniting to revisit the Bourne character.
“[Director Paul Greengrass and I] always looked at [the Bourne] movies as really about the Bush presidency, and so we kind of had to wait for the world to change,” Damon told BuzzFeed. “Without giving too much of it away, it’s Bourne through an austerity-riddled Europe and in a post-Snowden world. It seems like enough has changed, you know? There are all these kinds of arguments about spying and civil liberties and the nature of democracy.”
#Bourne is back. See the first Jason Bourne footage in the #SuperBowl TV spot: https://t.co/Bwxr63ao8o pic.twitter.com/NcIl6HyTEL
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) February 8, 2016
Matt did confirm that the new film will begin filming in Greece, which is “the beginning of democracy,” he said, and the fact that country’s current financial crisis is plaguing the greater European economy may certainly provide for an intriguing subplot.
Matt made his acting debut in the 1998 film Mystic Pizza. He has since received international praise for his performances in films such Saving Private Ryan, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Syriana and The Martian. He has earned Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Actor, and he and actor Ben Affleck wrote and starred in Good Will Hunting (1998), which won them the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.
Matt Damon will return as Jason Bourne July 29, when Bourne 5 arrives in theaters. Principal photography for the new film commenced last September.
[Images via Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP/Twitter]
