The last we heard on the development on the potential fourth installment in the Jason Bourne franchise was back in August of last year. It was reported that director Paul Greengrass and Matt Damon had indeed signed on for Bourne 4, but troubles with the script were causing a lot of headaches at Universal, so the project went stagnant. Now it appears as though we have some official word directly from the mouths of Greengrass and Damon, both of whom are declaring that they’re done with Jason Bourne.

The director and actor were at a press junket this weekend to promote their upcoming Iraq-set action-thriller Green Zone. When asked about Bourne 4, Greengrass gave what could be his closing statement on the matter (via ComingSoon):

Listen, I just love the Bourne franchise, number one, and I owe it a great deal, and I gave my all on the two films that I made,” he began, “But when I was honest with myself last Autumn, and I was starting to get going on other things, you just come to a point where you realize you’ve done it. You don’t have anything more to contribute to a franchise that needs to continue obviously, and in order to continue, a franchise needs to be rebooted and reenergized by new perspectives. I just felt that I’d done it, and there’s nothing unnatural about that. To make a film, it’s 19 months of your life seven days a week, 20 hours a day, you’ve got to have real… and there were just too many other things that I was interested in. I felt like I’d had a wonderful, wonderful time, I loved it and I want it to continue. In the end, contrary to reports, there was never an argument with the studio of any kind at all. I did spend some time thinking that I might (do it) and getting myself to a place of ‘what would it be?’ and it’s only when you do that where you find, ‘You know what? I’m gone. I’m onto other things.’ I explained (it) to them. We had a very nice discussion–they were completely understanding–and I said ‘We’ll make some other movies.’ They said ‘Excellent.’

Damon then discussed a way that Universal could do a prequel to The Bourne Identity without him, that would appease the Damon-as-Bourne loyalists:

I think they have a good way to do a prequel with someone else, and basically make it about the Bourne identity, the actual identity. Any studio is interested in making it an evergreen that can just go on and on and on, and it never will with our character because he’s resolved his issues now. He’s got his memory back three times now. I don’t think anybody wants to see me say ‘I don’t remember’ again, but I think what we could do is that you can do some movies with another actor, anyone, whether it’s Ryan Gosling or Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington, and he’s Jason Bourne, and at the end of his one or two or three movies, you see them getting ready to pass the identity onto me, so it just becomes like a 007, it becomes the name that they give this certain person who is uniquely positioned. So then if Paul and I come back and do a fourth one in ten years, we’ll pass it onto someone else and then the thing can kind of go on.

“…If Paul and I come back and do a fourth one in 10 years…”??? So would that be called The Bourne Prostate Exam? Haha, I’m just kidding. I think that could actually be cool, but I’m sure Damon was just talking. So as much as I’d like to see Damon and Greengrass team up for Bourne 4, I’m actually kind of glad that it’s ending. Because at least for now, we have one of the few awesome complete trilogies that ended on a high note (*cough* Star Wars and The Matrix franchises *cough*).

What Do You Think? Discuss.

Ok, so that’s not an actual title. It would be pretty funny if it was though, as it does shed some light on the potential future adventures of the most badass super spy in movies. After the impressive debut of The Bourne Identity in 2002 and the explosive success of The Bourne Supremacy in 2004, Matt Damon and Supremacy/Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass decided to return one more time for a third and final installment of the Bourne series. However as they say, money talks. After The Bourne Ultimatum raked in an August record-breaking $227 million domestically, won three academy awards and across-the-board critical acclaim in 2007, Damon, Greengrass and Universal decided that only three Bourne adventures was simply not enough.

The fourth Bourne movie, that is currently being labeled as Bourne 4 , was announced back in October of 2008 with Damon and Greengrass officially signed on to direct and star, and Ultimatum screenwriter George Nolfi to pen the script. This will be the first Bourne film not to be based on the novels by author Robert Ludlum. It now appears that Universal is not happy with Nolfi’s initial draft because they just hired screenwriter Joshua Zetumer to draft a “parallel script.” Sometimes when studios are not confident with a script, they hire a additional screenwriters to come up with separate drafts, incorporating some elements of the original draft, called parallel scripts. I guess it’s a way to ensure creative success with multiple perspectives. However, this approach has proven to be unsuccessful in the past, as parallel scripts were written for X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and we all know how that turned out.

Back in April, producer Frank Marshall said that Universal is hoping to have Bourne 4 released in theaters in the  Summer of 2011, and that they would have a draft by June. Well, with the hiring of Zetumer for this parallel draft, that time table could and will most likely change. Matt Damon recently elaborated on the status of Bourne 4 to Entertainment Weekly, saying:

“We’re hoping to make a fourth, but we don’t have a story and we don’t have a script. I assume it can happen, but we have to come up with a storyline that’s deserving. I mean, if you see the Bourne character come out again and say, ‘I can’t remember,’ you’re going to get up and leave the theater.”

As I alluded to in the image above, Marshall has previously stated that he would like to see Bourne go to South America in his next adventure. I don’t think it would be a road trip though, unfortunately.

So for now, I guess we’re just going to have to wait and see.

What Do You Think? Discuss.