I think we are all at least somewhat excited for the return of Matt Damon to the Bourne franchise, alongside director Paul Greengrass. But if you were expecting to see an overlapping of Damon’s Jason Bourne with Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross character from The Bourne Legacy, you are going to be disappointed. According to executive producer Frank Marshall, that crossover is not going to happen.
Speaking to interviewers following a panel about an upcoming Sinatra documentary, Marshall discussed the future of the Bourne franchise, as well as several other projects he has coming up. The producer is happy to have managed to get Damon and Greengrass back together for a new Bourne film, especially given that neither seemed to want to return to the franchise initially. But while Renner’s Aaron Cross will remain a part of the franchise itself, Marshall states that there are no plans to have him and Bourne cross paths. As he put it, “they’re on separate tracks.”
Marshall also revealed that the long-awaited Goonies 2 that Richard Donner has been building buzz about is still just that: buzz. There’s not yet a script that Marshall knows of, though if a good one came along it sounds like he’d be happy to produce it. The same seems to go for a new Indiana Jones film, which Disney has been considering for a reboot. Whether Marshall might be involved in that one is unclear, as he says that no one has spoken to him about it yet.
Personally, I’m a little disappointed that there are no plans (yet) to cross over the plots of Damon and Renner’s Bourne films – seeing the pair of them in action would have been a lot of fun. Still, even Marshall says never say never. Maybe we can hold out hope for a Bourne/Cross film sometime in the future.
You can read the full interview with Marshall and NerdReport.com’s Fred Topel (via Collider) below, and let us know what you think of it in the comments section.
Question: You’ve got Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass back for another Bourne movie. Does Jeremy Renner still have a role in that franchise?
FRANK MARSHALL: In the franchise, yes.
How big of a challenge was it to get Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass back together, since it sounded like that wouldn’t happen again?
MARSHALL: It was really the challenge of finding the story. If you look back five or six years ago, when we were maybe going on, we just didn’t have a story. It’s taken this long for us to come up with a story that everybody responded to. Now, we’re moving forward.Since Matt Damon said he was game, if Paul Greengrass would say yes, was it really just about Paul Greengrass saying yes?
MARSHALL: No, it was about both of them responding to a story idea. Now, we’re off and we’re going to go write the script and make it.
Are there still plans for the two to eventually meet and have a movie together?
MARSHALL: We don’t have plans for that. You never know. I never say never. But that’s not the plan. They’re on separate tracks.Disney has suggested rebooting Indiana Jones, now that they own the franchise. Is that true? Would you still be involved with that?
MARSHALL: You’d have to ask my wife (Kathleen Kennedy). They haven’t come to me yet.
Does Harrison Ford still want to do one more?
MARSHALL: I don’t know. You’d have to ask her. She just worked with him on that other little franchise (Star Wars). I don’t know. I’m too busy with Jurassic and Bourne and [Sinatra: All or Nothing at All].Last year, Richard Donner started generating some real buzz about Goonies 2. Is there real heat behind that now?
MARSHALL: It’s in discussion. He’s talked to us about it, and we’ve talked to him. It’s all about the story. We don’t just do sequels to do them. The story has to be there.
So, there isn’t a new script?
MARSHALL: Not yet.
But he wants one?
MARSHALL: Yeah, he’s saying, “Okay, who’s got an idea?”
Obviously, it doesn’t matter how big the fan base is, if there isn’t an idea.
MARSHALL: Yeah, that’s very important. You don’t want to disappoint the fans by just doing a schlocky movie. You want to do a real legitimate movie. It’s not going to be a sequel. In the Amblin spirit of Goonies, that’s what has to be.Is that why it took some time to get to Jurassic World?
MARSHALL: That’s one of the reasons, yeah. It was about story.
And people expect so much more now.
MARSHALL: Oh, they do! I believe that the audience wants to discover the movie in the movie theater. I don’t care what you say, with all of the leaks, I think it’s a spoiler. You want to see Star Wars like you saw Star Wars the first time when you had no idea, or Back to the Future or Goonies or Bourne. You don’t want to know what’s coming.Jurassic Park was one of those films because you saved the big reveal of the dinosaur for the movie, but that was such a technological breakthrough. Is there another breakthrough you can make on the fourth film?
MARSHALL: Not technologically. You’re right, everybody has seen a dinosaur now, so it can’t be about that. We have to have a good story.