Matt Damon is at the Venice International Film Festival this week promoting his new movie "The Informant!," but he can't escape press inquiries regarding a fourth "Bourne" movie. Another installment of the action franchise was greenlit by Universal last October, and Damon is on board provided there's a worthwhile script.
The problem is, apparently nobody can come up with a good idea for the continuation of the formerly amnesiac super soldier's story.
This is where you come in -- if you can find the number for an exec at Universal, that is. Damon told Empire Online that there's a huge amount of pressure coming from the studio to make the sequel. "Even if we made a horrible movie, it would make money, and [Universal execs] know that."
"If you have a good fourth 'Bourne' story," he said in the interview, "call Universal and they'll give you a bunch of money!"
Damon added that Bourne can neither go back to work for the U.S. government nor continue investigating his past. But he's right to admit the series isn't like the James Bond franchise. It can't just pick up a new storyline.
Any other direction the Bourne story goes in would seem too much of a departure. Maybe it won't be as big a deviation as the upcoming sci-fi installment of "Rambo," but anything outside of the base amnesiac premise is a bad idea.
So what do we do with the character? Call the thing "Bourne Again" and have him fall off another boat and lose his memory a second time? Hey, if John McClane can coincidentally end up in the middle of so many terrorist plots, why not? And there are so many things to do with memory loss that IMDb could consider making the "amnesia" keyword into a separate genre.
Maybe in "Bourne 4" Damon can show off more of his comedic talents by doing it as a gender-switched remake of "Overboard." Who wouldn't like to see Jason Bourne suddenly duped into thinking he's the father of a bunch of white trash brats?
The only other logical idea is also inspired by the "Die Hard" movies, but it would also be an obvious ripoff. For "Bourne 4," you could have a revenge plot involving the brother (or daughter, etc.) of one of those people assassinated by Bourne. The twist is, Bourne can't recall this person he supposedly killed, and by this time he has otherwise regained his memory completely. That's because the person has made up a story to conceal that he's actually the brother of Maria (Franka Potente), and he blames Bourne for her death.
Or something like that. Personally, I'd prefer something as simple as having Bourne go head-to-head with the twin brother of Clive Owen's character from "The Bourne Identity" just to have more scenes with those two actors together.
Do you have any better ideas for "Bourne 4"? Would you rather the series just calls it quits while it's ahead?
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