After two installments under director Paul Greengrass, the big-screen franchise of Jason Bourne will need a new director.
Greengrass has turned down the opportunity to coast the fourth installment in the Matt Damon starring franchise. The move could be a setback to the next installment hitting theaters as rapidly as Universal Pictures would like.
The Bourne series, based on the bestselling novels by Robert Ludlum, have been hits domestically and internationally. And despite assurances from several in the creative team that the third movie would be the last, the huge box-office results led Universal to pursue a fourth installment
“I will always be grateful to have been the caretaker to Jason Bourne over the course of ‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum,’” Greengrass said. “I’m very proud of those films and feel they express everything I most passionately believe about the possibility of making quality movies in the mainstream.
“My decision to not return a third time as director is simply about feeling the call for a different challenge. There’s been no disagreement with Universal Pictures. The opportunity to work with the Bourne family again is a difficult thing to pass up, but we have discussed this together and they have been incredibly understanding and supportive. I’ve been lucky enough to have made four films for Universal, and our relationship continues.”
Perhaps we'll get someone who is not so enamored with the camera-on-a-bungee-cord style of filming, and we'll actually get to see what is happening on the screen.
I hope someone paid him off to stay away. The way he filmed the hand-to-hand combat scenes in Supremacy/Ultimatum was a crime. The fight in the house between Jason and the former op was more intense than the fight in the loft in the first movie, and we couldn't clearly see any of it. It angered me because I could hear and see enough of it to know that a lot of careful choreography went into that fight, and the fact that no viewer got the satisfaction of seeing it practically wasted everyone's time.
No, I'm not bitter about that filmed travesty, why do you ask?
As much as I won't miss the much criticised shaky camera that much. I have to say that this is the only trilogy that I have thought has got better with each instalment.
Greengrass has to take some credit for that surely. The films certainly have their own feel and maybe that has something to do with the fact you can't see anything in the action sequences.