The Bourne Legacy may not have Jason Bourne himself but it is definitely his legacy. Joan Allen who played CIA Deputy Director Pamela Landy in The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, and Albert Finney who played a doctor for Treadstone in Ultimatum, will reprise their roles for the spin off movie.
Digital Spy reports that Allen’s Pamela Landy and Finney’s bad guy doctor provide a connection to the three previous Bourne adventures starring Matt Damon.
Edward Norton is playing the main villain in The Bourne Legacy while Rachel Weisz is playing an as yet unspecified role. And of course, Jeremy Renner will star in the lead role.
Tony Gilroy, the director of the Oscar nominated thriller Michael Clayton, is directing The Bourne Legacy from a script he co-wrote with his brother Dan Gilroy. Tony has also scripted each of the previous Bourne movies based on the book series by Robert Ludlum.
In a 2010 Today Show interview, Tony Gilroy explained that Matt Damon was not being replaced as Jason Bourne but rather that The Bourne Legacy is an expansion of the series. Gilroy told Today “I’m building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy…the world we’re making enhances and invites Jason Bourne’s return.”
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year Matt Damon said “I think it’s a smart thing to do. It doesn’t interfere with Paul (Greengrass) and me doing a movie. As I understand it, if you think of X-Men and then Wolverine, it’s just that process in reverse. Tony doesn’t want to hurt the Bourne story. So, as I understand it, Jason Bourne is alive in the world Tony is going to create.”
The Bourne Legacy is on track for an August 2012 release.
