The Bourne Ultimatum

[MacGuffin]

Greengrass To Helm 'Bourne Ultimatum'

Hollywood movie-maker Paul Greengrass has signed up to direct Matt Damon in The Bourne Ultimatum - the third installment of the action franchise. Speaking at Monday night's Empire Awards in London, the director, who also helmed The Bourne Supremacy after The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman pulled out, insisted The Bourne Ultimatum will be bigger and better than its predecessors in every way. He says, "We've got a script and we're underway. It's a new story, completely different from the novel. It was written by Tony Gilroy and Tom Stoppard. It's going to have all the excitement you'd expect from a Bourne film and all the intensity you'd expect from a Bourne story. I can't wait - it's just going to be f**king fantastic. It's going to rock. That's honestly what it's going to do. What direction? We'll have a better car chase, have more exciting action, more intensity and just generally be a f**king classy film. I think Matt Damon's looking forward to it like I am. It's going to be an absolute laugh."

[Raikus]

Ignoring source material and writing something completely new - Strike One.

Trying to pitch the movie as an exciting, intense, fantastic, rocking, action, classy comedy - Strike Two.

Having no contact with star actor on project thus far - Foul Ball.

Wonder how it will turn out?

[modage]

"a f**king classy film"

i love that.  it must make its way onto the marquee somehow.

[polkablues]

Ignoring source material and writing something completely new - Strike One.

Well, the first two movies came out okay, and they were about as close to the books as "She's The Man" is to Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" (less so, even!)

[MacGuffin]

Bernal could be bad guy for new 'Bourne'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

"The Bourne Ultimatum," the third installment of the hit action series, began shooting this week in Tangier, but it is still without a worthy nemesis for its amnesiac spy hero, Jason Bourne.

With the clock ticking, an offer has gone out to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal to take on the role, though negotiations have not yet begun. Bernal, whose credits include "Amores Perros," "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and "The Motorcycle Diaries," is currently in theaters with Michel Gondry's whimsical comedy-drama "The Science of Sleep."

Matt Damon reprises his title role, and Joan Allen and Julia Stiles are also back, as is Paul Greengrass, who directed the 2004 sequel "The Bourne Supremacy." David Strathairn ("Good Night, and Good Luck") is new to the cast.

The story centers on Bourne uncovering mysteries of his past, which puts him in the cross-hairs of a superkiller. In addition to Tangier, shooting locations include Madrid, Paris, New York, London and Riga.

While it is unusual for a major production to begin filming without having cast a central role, it is not without precedent. Last year, the James Bond movie "Casino Royale" kicked off its production without either an opponent for 007 or a leading lady.

[MacGuffin]

No Bernal for The Bourne Ultimatum
Source: CHUD

Several weeks ago, The Hollywood Reporter said that an offer had gone out to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal to play the nemesis in The Bourne Ultimatum, which is currently shooting. CHUD caught up with the actor, who said he's not taking on the role.

"I love those movies," he told me, but he won't be taking the role. The reason, he said is that he's finishing up his directorial debut, Deficit, a film about some rich boys who learn some tough lessons. It's a vague description, but Bernal says that because hes basically rewriting the film in the editing room.

The third installment of the Jason Bourne franchise, directed by Paul Greengrass, stars Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Paddy Considine. The film's shooting locations include Tangier, Madrid, Paris, New York, London and Riga.

[MacGuffin]

Ramirez is the Bourne Ultimatum Baddie
Source: Empire Online

Empire Online has learned that Edgar Ramirez (Domino) has landed the role of Paz, the villain in The Bourne Ultimatum. The sequel is currently filming for an August 3 release.

In the new chapter of this espionage series, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) will hunt down his past in order to find a future. He must travel from Moscow, Paris, Madrid and London to Tangier and New York City as he continues his quest to find the real Jason Bourne--all the while trying to outmaneuver the scores of cops, federal officers and Interpol agents with him in their crosshairs.

Directed by Paul Greengrass, the Universal feature also stars Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Paddy Considine.

[MacGuffin]

Trailer

Release Date: August 3rd, 2007 (wide)

Starring: Matt Damon, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine 

Directed by: Paul Greengrass (United 93; The Bourne Supremacy)

Premise: Legendary assassin Jason Bourne uncovers mysteries of his past, which puts him in the cross-hairs of a superkiller.

[Gold Trumpet]

Premise: Legendary assassin Jason Bourne uncovers mysteries of his past, which puts him in the cross-hairs of a superkiller.

I'll see this with some glee, but the only motivation now for the series seems to be able outdue the action sequences of the last. Jason Bourne is now super agent and the only new potential storyline is the addition of an even greater super killer for Bourne to defeat. His past, his characterization, all supposebly there, but all of little interest. This film will be dense with overbaked filmmaking to just show action.

The Bourne Identity was an average film, but had a unique spin. It focused on the intangibles that made Bourne unique and that led him to some self discovery. Then the Bourne Supremacy exploited it. I'm guessing Ultimatum will continue the exploitation.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[MacGuffin]

The Bourne Ultimatum
Source: Entertainment Weekly

Here's a confession from a longtime summer-movie buff. Every time I see that black CG goo oozing over Tobey Maguire's Spidey suit in the Spider-Man 3 trailer — and every time I see Davy Jones' tentacle beard squiggling in the Pirates 3 ads, or even Optimus Prime jackknifing into computer-assisted life in the cool Transformers TV spots — it makes me that much more jazzed to catch The Bourne Ultimatum on Aug. 3.

No offense to Spidey, Davy, or Mr. Prime — see all you dudes on opening weekend — but at the moment, the Bourne movies are the best thing going for the thinking action fan. The Bourne Identity and The Bourne Supremacy are sleek, old-school spy vehicles: pile-driving, character-driven, and anchored by a riveting hero who is in no way played by a computer. As Jason Bourne, the CIA-trained amnesiac assassin screwed over by his government, Matt Damon has found a role perfectly constructed for his tightly coiled and wounded mien. And the Bourne movies are currently doing more than any other franchise to bring verisimilitude back to the blockbuster, which every year seems to be losing more and more of its soul to the encroaching black goo of CG fantasy.

''I think the unique thing about the franchise is that it has got that root in reality,'' says Paul Greengrass, the director of Supremacy and Ultimatum, and a recent Oscar nominee for United 93. ''Bourne's not a superhero, is he? I always remember that moment in Supremacy when he uses the magazine in the fight, and it's nothing — just a magazine. He doesn't worship at the altar of technology like a lot of these heroes do, with their bigger and bigger cars and gadgets. I think that helps ground him.'' Indeed, it was astonishing, last fall, to witness the obvious influence Bourne exerted on the grittier, shorter, more muscular, more vulnerable, and suddenly more realistic James Bond in Casino Royale. The upstart had schooled the granddaddy.

Despite being loosely based on Robert Ludlum's spy trilogy, the Bourne movies weren't originally conceived as summer-movie franchise fodder. Identity was slated for release in the fall of 2001 until director Doug Liman's reshoots forced a move to June 2002. And at the time, Damon's status as a leading man was scuffling — he'd seen All the Pretty Horses and The Legend of Bagger Vance tank. But Identity was a surprise hit, winning over critics and grossing $122 million. And when 2004 rolled around, Supremacy was an even bigger one, grossing $53 million on its opening weekend and a domestic total of $176 million. All of which presented an amusing problem: Nobody had gotten around to thinking what they'd do if audiences demanded a third movie.

''We made each movie with absolutely no eye to the next,'' says Damon. ''If we had thought, 'Well, we're gonna make three or six or ten, then I don't think we would've killed Marie [his love interest in Identity, played by Franka Potente], because that's something you want to save.'' Then he laughs. ''Maybe we would've let them run around the world for part 2, and held back her death for part 3. But it's a cynical approach to think, 'Okay, this is going to be a big franchise.' We didn't want to do that.''

So what is Bourne up to in Ultimatum? If the strong story hook of Supremacy was Marie's death, Greengrass explains, this time the heart of the movie is ''bringing Bourne home'' as he still tries to unravel the secrets of his famously lost identity. En route, the superspy takes on a new breed of government assassins overseen by a new character played by David Strathairn. Eventually, after a motorbike and rooftop chase through Tangier, Bourne ends up back in New York, where the film climaxes with a car chase through midtown and downtown Manhattan that took six weeks to film. ''We've had two really great chases in the previous films,'' explains Damon, ''and they were both stepchildren of the one in The French Connection in a way, and so we felt we had to dare to go back to New York.'' Greengrass promises the scene adheres to ''the Bourne aesthetic,'' which means he actually shot in the city streets, and the sequence isn't digitally created.

The director adds that even though this Bourne trilogy is completed, he'd love to see the character keep going. ''The Bourne movies stand out because Bourne is a real man, in a real world,'' he says. ''And he's in pursuit of a quest that's as mythic and old as Greek tragedy: He's in search of his identity. And when you marry those things together as a Bourne movie, it's a precious thing. It's not just a big-budget popcorn movie — I mean, it's gotta be that, it's gotta work on a Saturday night throughout the world. But if it's just that, it's not a Bourne movie. Then it's just like all the others.''

[MacGuffin]

No More Bourne for Matt Damon
Source: The Daily Telegraph

Matt Damon told the press today in Cannes that The Bourne Ultimatum will be his last time to play Jason Bourne, despite the franchise earning hundreds of millions of dollars around the world.

"The 'Bourne' thing I'm definitely done with," Damon said, as he sat in a news conference with co-stars from Ocean's Thirteen, which was being shown at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Oscar-winner added, though, that the Bourne character may well live on, played by another actor, much like the James Bond series.

The Bourne Ultimatum opens in theaters on August 3.

[Ravi]

Circuit City has the first two Bourne films on DVD for $3.99 this Memorial Day weekend.

[MacGuffin]

New Trailer here.

[Pubrick]

nice trailer. what happened to his voice?

tagline should say "this summer bourne comes home, or else.." it would both make sense and not make sense at the same time.