Jason Bourne Renews License to Kill James Bond
Jason Boland/Universal Studios
Is Matt Damon getting ready to be Bourne again...and again...and again?
Universal has just inked a deal with Robert Ludlum's estate for exclusive rights to the Jason Bourne character and first look at his other novels.
The agreement allows the studio to forge ahead with three more Bourne movies and continue a franchise that has so far spawned more than $1 billion in worldwide grosses and is widely considered to be kicking the crap out of a certain martini-mad rival spy guy.
Damon, who has played the revenge-minded amnesiac in the first three movies, has already signed on to a fourth installment to be directed by Paul Greengrass, who helmed The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Supremacy. It's not known whether Damon will play the role beyond the next film, or whether producers will go the Bond route and keep recasting.
While Ludlum penned only two sequels, Supremacy and Ultimatum, before his death in 2001, his heirs commissioned novelist Eric Van Lustbader to continue the series with The Bourne Legacy, The Bourne Betrayal and The Bourne Sanction.
No word if the new films will utilize those latter-day tales, but the estate reportedly has final approval on all screenplays and casting choices. Ludlum Entertainment will also develop other Ludlum-based non-Bourne conspiracy thrillers, such as The Sigma Protocol, as potential movies.
The fourth Bourne flick is targeted to hit theaters in summer 2010.
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