Damon ready to send Bourne into retirement

The end of Bourne?
Both are hoping to get an opportunity to work with Damon again. Greengrass, who directed “Supremacy” in 2004, has said publicly that he’s willing to direct a fourth installment if audiences respond well to the current effort. Damon, however, has said that he’s not that interested in revisiting Bourne now that he’s overcome the ultimatum.

“I said that when we were nine months into filming this one,” Damon said. “But the reality is the trilogy — the story of this guy’s search for his identity is over. He’s got all the answers. What would the fourth one be about? It would have to be the kind of the continuing adventures of … The inner-propulsive drive that the character has to get these answers is now gone. There would have to be some external antagonism, you know, that draws him back in. I don’t see anything happening for another 10 years that could serve as kind of a story engine to do another one.”

Apparently, the Oscar winner didn’t see the ending. It’s just begging for a sequel.

“It is a fun role to play,” Damon, 36, said. “It’s funny. The whole thing is always this kind of middle-aged fantasy in a way, you know. OK, I’m going to get bonked on the head and I wake up and I speak 12 languages and kick everybody’s ass and this really cool German girl falls in love with me. And so, to a certain extent it’s a bit of wish fulfillment.”

One of the reasons Damon, who was single during the first two films, might be wanting to move on is because playing Jason Bourne is rather physically taxing, especially now that he has someone at home to chase around. Isabella, the first child Damon’s had with Luciana, his wife of two years, is one and running.

“I started the movie in really good shape and the one thing I realized about myself now and having kids (Luciana has an older daughter from a previous relationship) is that I used to not have any life. I would go in for the old ‘Bourne’ movies and we would work six-day weeks, 12-15 hours a day and then I’d go to the gym for two hours, eat a little something and go to sleep. In this movie, I showed up in my ‘Bourne’ shape and as the movie went on I would go home and I’d work my 16 hours and I wasn’t going to the gym. I wanted to see my kid.

“Paul and I were laughing because there were some shots where I said, ‘Dude, you’ve got to cut that out!’ I’m 20 pounds heavier than I was at the beginning of the movie. So yeah, that was a challenge and an eye-opener for me.”

Another thing that might have Damon a little concerned about doing a fourth film is that Jason Bourne is probably 10 blockbusters away from becoming as iconic as James Bond. If that’s the case — even though Damon has a very diverse body of work — Bourne could become the definitive character of Damon’s career and at this point it appears that that’s not something he’s willing to risk.

“The advantages of being in a franchise — in this case — is that people seem to like it and we get these great directors who come out of independent film,” Damon said. “That’s been really helpful for me. But you can get involved in franchises where you become so recognizable that you can’t take another role. I think the work I’ve done in between all the movies has kept me from being pigeonholed.”

Now what’s the name of that dude he played in “Syriana”?

Good Matt speaking On a future project with Affleck: “We’ll do something but we just went on vacation together and everyone though we were writing something when we were on vacation. We didn’t want to do anything.” On being a dad: “I think unless you have kids it’s a hard question to answer. Being a parent — it changes everything about you in little ways that you don’t get unless you have kids and it’s a question that’s hard to answer because there’s so any things that change. It’s kind of like describing a guitar chord. It’s not a simple thing to do.” On award shows: “I think that the best way to judge movies is like 10 years after and I really think that. I think they should do the awards that way. I think they should do the Academy Awards this year for 1997. Because there is so much money and there is so much stuff in the air when these movies come out because marketing departments are putting so much into getting the word out. A lot of opinion is fashioned by them. It’s better to look at a movie and step back and look at it again. I don’t think the Awards get it right. I think they get it wrong more often than they get it right.”

Miki Turner is a freelance TV producer/writer in Los Angeles. She can be reached at

MORE FROM MOVIES

Movies Section Front

Could 2010 be the year Oscar goes geek? ‘Nine’ disappoints in return to big screen Freeman, Eastwood team up for ‘Invictus’ Hollywood depicts shining S. African moment ‘Invictus’ dripping with inspiration Miss. girl excited about role in ‘Princess’ Newsweek video: Carrie Fisher on 'Star Wars,' more ‘The Lovely Bones’ trades soul for spectacle Gervais: Stars in for a teasing at Golden Globes De Niro shines in ‘Everybody’s Fine’ Movies Section Front   Add Movies headlines to your news reader: