Matt Damon Says He Approached Jonathan Nolan About A New Bourne

Although The Bourne Legacy might have caused a few complications for Matt Damon to return as Jason Bourne, it appears that both he and director Paul Greengrass are still interested in returning, at least in principle (they come as a package, as Damon has said he won’t make another without the director).

Now Damon has been talking to Deadline about a possible return to the series and says that he approached Jonathan Nolan about it. Jonathan has worked closely with his brother Chris on the likes of Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight movie, and also created TV’s Person Of Interest.

Damon says, “Just a couple things, really. Paul Greengrass has to want to do it, and secondly and equally important, it comes down to Paul and I knowing what the hell we want to do. We just don’t have a story, and we haven’t had one. I quietly went to Jonah Nolan, because he and his brother Chris did such a brilliant job on Batman and that whole mythology. I just said, can you put your brain on this? I can’t figure it out. And he took a run at it and he couldn’t crack it either. Paul and I have been talking about it for years. And we can’t quite see what the movie would be. If we could get line of sight on that…”

That doesn’t sound too hopeful, as it seem even Nolan couldn’t come up with something Damon and Greengrass thought worked. However the actor adds, “Neither of us is against it [returning to the Bourne franchise]. I would love to do another one. I love that character. To me, the reason to make that movie is because people want to see it. Paul and I have said that to each other. We don’t take for granted the fact that we’ve built an audience for Bourne, that’s a real privilege. But our part of that bargain is that the movie is good and belongs with the other three. Until we can deliver that, we just can’t make it.”

Universal is still very keen to bring Damon back, especially after Legacy did okay but made less money than any of Matt’s Bourne outings. It still one of their most important franchises though. However it seem getting him to return is going to be tough without the perfect story.