New Jason Bourne Movie in the Works

A new Jason Bourne movie is in the works at Universal Pictures, according to a report by Deadline. On Monday, the outlet heard from anonymous sources that Universal has started development on a new film in the Bourne franchise, though it is still in the very early stages. The only name attached to the project so far is director Edward Berger.

Insiders at Universal reportedly said that the new Bourne project is in the earliest phase of development, with no script ready at this point. They claimed that the studio has asked Berger to direct the movie and oversee its development, but even that deal is not set in stone yet. Berger's film All Quiet on the Western Front won four Oscars this year including Best International Feature Film, and he is reportedly in high demand among studios right now. As for franchise star Matt Damon, insiders said he hasn't been approached just yet.

The sources said that Universal hopes to approach Damon once the script for another Bourne movie is finished so that they can present him with something concrete. They said that Damon would be "approached first" to star in the movie, possibly implying that the studio would be open to other stars as well. Damon starred in four out of the five Bourne movies up to this point. When he opted not to come back for the fourth movie, his character was written out of it. Afterward, he returned for the fifth movie which was a prequel.

The Bourne movies are based on action novels by author Robert Ludlum, and they center around a CIA assassin named Jason Bourne who suffers from dissociative amnesia. The series began in 2002 and continued chronologically for the first four movies, following Bourne's attempts to uncover the mystery of his own past. The fourth movie revolves around Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), a different CIA operative dealing with the consequences of Bourne's actions. Finally, the most recent movie was released in 2016 and was simply called Jason Bourne. It gives more details on Bourne's origin story.

Rumblings of more Bourne movies have been going around since then. A spinoff TV series aired on the USA Network for one season in 2019. Back in 2016, producer Frank Marshall told Slash Film that they were more likely to make a sequel to Jason Bourne than a sequel to Bourne Legacy. However, in 2017 Damon said that he doubted any more Bourne movies were coming at all, saying he thought audiences "might be done" with the franchise.

The Bourne franchise is a bit scattered on streaming services right now – the first two movies are available on Prime Video while The Bourne Ultimatum is on Max. The fourth movie, Bourne Legacy is on Prime Video and the prequel, Jason Bourne is on Peacock. The TV series Treadstone is available on Hulu and Peacock. There's no telling when any future installments might be coming our way.