New Writer for Bourne 4

Published by Jeff Leins on August 21, 2009

Josh Zetumer has signed to write a script for the fourth Bourne movie in the successful Universal Pictures series.  Hoping for a 2010 release date, the studio brought in another writer to keep a pre-production pace the super spy would approve of.

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass have agreed to return for at least one more movie even after joking another would be “The Bourne Redundancy.”  Let’s hope the shaky cam is the only thing that goes away in the sequel.

The Bourne Ultimatum co-writer George Nolfi was originally working on the story and script without the help of the talented Tony Gilroy.  However, as The Adjustment Bureau hits the fast track (also a Uni movie starring Damon), Nolfi was pulled away on those writing and directing duties, which left the moneymaking spy all alone again.

According to THR, Zetumer is writing a “parallel script” meaning his draft could be merged with Nolfi’s or the two could collaborate when the Bureau is in the can.  Their article points out it’s rare in script development, but isn’t unprecedented.  Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer and X-Men Origins: Wolverine are recent examples.  Unfortunately, neither say good things about the process of integrating two separate scripts.

The story both writers are using isn’t based on one of Robert Ludlum’s original novels.  It was rumored to be loosely related to The Bourne Legacy by continuation author Eric Van Lustbader, but it seems unlikely to take the movies down a Bourne offspring storyline.

Other than the Bourne series, there are at least three other posthumous Ludlum adaptations on the way from Hollywood.  The Matarese Circle at MGM directed by David Cronenberg and starring Tom Cruise, The Parsifal Mosaic at Universal directed by Ron Howard, and The Sigma Protocol at Universal.

Universal loves Ludlum.  Of course they do.  They’ve made $945 million worldwide off the theatrical run of the Bourne trilogy.