By I’m interested in seeing where the Bourne franchise goes, now that it’s out of the hands of Matt Damon and Paul Greengass, and this particular rumor has me feeling that Tony Gilroy is going in the right direction. The latest out of the Hollywood rumor mill is that Hurt Locker and Avengers star Jeremy Renner is about to be offered the main role in Tony Gilroy’s upcoming entry in the franchise, The Bourne Legacy. Interestingly, he is not Gilroy’s first choice for the role. That honor goes to Oscar Issac, who you might remember as the worst actor in the sea of terrible acting that was Sucker Punch. What’s particularly intriguing to me about this is that Renner would not be playing Jason Bourne, but rather another agent from the Treadstone program. The idea is that, down the line, Matt Damon would one day return to the franchise as Bourne.
This is an interesting way to move the franchise forward. I’m not sure if Jason Bourne has the same staying power as James Bond, where he lasts for decades, requiring many different actors playing the role. I’m not saying this is going to be successful, in a creative or financial sense, but it’s certainly a different way of approaching a new stage in the franchise’s development. It begs the question, though, that if the protagonist is going to have a similar set of skills as Jason Bourne, why not just recast Jason Bourne? Unless there’s some contractual thing that prevents someone other than Matt Damon from taking the role, there’s room to have a different Boune. I mean, my parents grew up with six different James Bonds, seven if you count the 1966 Casino Royale. I’m sure my generation can handle a second Jason Bourne.
[Via Total Film]