Image courtesy of Universal Studios Entertainment

Jeremy Renner stars and Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton) directs the next Bourne movie, The Bourne Legacy. Matt Damon and Bourne Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass are no where to be found. Why?

Well, Damon finally let people know why he wasn’t going to do the next film. Basically, Universal approached Greengrass and asked him to commit to the film. All they had in hand was a release date, no script. Greengrass didn’t think this was a smart idea so he backed off, which made Damon back off too. Damon and Greengrass wanted the next film to be as good as the first three, and they weren’t sure it would happen.

So the studio went another way, they got the writer of the first three films to direct the fourth (Gilroy) and approached Jeremy Renner to star as another spy in the Bourne universe. How does this sit with Damon?

“I don’t think the Gilroy Bourne has any bearing on our franchise,” Damon said. “Because if it came out and bombed, we could just ignore it and make another one. But I don’t think it will. I think Tony’s really smart, he’s a great director.

“My guess is that Bourne is going to come out and be great and be exactly what people want and there will be room for us to do another one and it’ll all work out.”

Wait what? Room for us to do another one? So two separate Bourne story lines? What is this, Call of Duty? Renner, on the other hand, has said he’d love to be in a Bourne movie with Damon. Would you be up for that, rather than doing another one with Greengrass? Well, as long as he doesn’t lose his memory again:

“The guy’s got his memory back three times in a row now and if you hear that character say I don’t remember again … you have other issues,” Damon laughs. “It’s not amnesia, you have a learning disability.” [New York Daily News]

bourne legacy, jeremy renner, matt damon