The Bourne Franchise Is Up for Grabs

Universal Pictures has owned the rights to the Jason Bourne action spy franchise for decades, but that could soon change. Matt Damon has starred in four of the five existing films featuring the character created by author Robert Ludlum, going back to 2002’s The Bourne Identity.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, WME and the estate of the late Ludlum have begun shopping around the IP for a potential reboot of the franchise at a new home. According to the trade, the interested parties include Skydance, Apple, and Netflix. With the chaotic state of movie theaters and streamer tentpole duds, studios are definitely scrambling to get their hands on tried and trusted IP, as was just seen with Amazon taking creative control of the James Bond series.

Universal could retain the Bourne rights if it chooses to outbid potential buyers in competition for the franchise. Under Universal, the franchise also includes sequels The Bourne Ultimatum (2004), The Bourne Supremacy (2007), The Bourne Legacy (2012, with Jeremy Renner stepping to star), and Damon reprising his role in 2016’s Jason Bourne. As THR notes, “it is too early to say if [Damon] would be involved in the new iteration.”

The series has also attracted talent behind the camera, with Andor creator Tony Gilroy writing or co-writing all entries except Jason Bourne, and directing The Bourne Legacy. Other series directors have included Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass.

There’s also a staged stunt show inspired by the series at Universal Studios Florida called The Bourne Stuntacular. With the studio seeing a huge success in genre with Wicked, it will be interesting to see if it sticks with the spy-fi content it has mined from Bourne over the years.

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