Paul Greengrass Quits Bourne 4 Leaving Project In Trouble

This comes off as a huge shock for me considering how great the Bourne franchise is. The fourth installment for the Bourne franchise had been in the works for some time now, with Universal hiring writers for the project although no one was officially signed. Now sources close to the project report that director Paul Greengrass has walked away from the project.

The Playlist reports that Paul Greengrass, the director of ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ (the better two of the trilogy), was already having a fallout with the studio Universal for quite some time. His upcoming film, also starring Matt Damon, ‘Green Zone’ was a lot of trouble shooting and has a reported budget of $100 million and for an Iraq war movie (that never does well), Universal is not happy about the inflated cost. And neither is Paul Greengrass about being treated this way by Universal after the huge hit that was The Bourne Ultimatum for Universal.

Another issue here was that first, George Nolfi was hired to write the screenplay for the fourth film (he also co-wrote ‘The Bourne Ultimatum) but a few months ago, Universal hired another writer Josh Zetumer to write a ‘parallel’ script for the film. This wasn’t taken well by Greengrass either, since he wasn’t consulted on this move by Universal. And hence, Greengrass has parted ways with the project.

This also leaves the involvment of Matt Damon in doubt since he is ‘loyal’ to the director. Unless a brilliant script (or paycheck) comes along, consider Matt Damon out too.

This is an unfortunate incident considering Bourne 4 was one of the most anticipated sequels after the amazing ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ and if all this is true, then it’s safe to assume the project is dead for now.

Let’s wait for official confirmation and further development on this.