Our man in Venice, Damon Wise, sat down with Matt Damon today for a chat about his new film The Informant! (check out a future issue of Empire for that interview) but found a few moments to ask the star about the proposed fourth Bourne film, and his upcoming Iraq thriller Green Zone.
On Bourne, first of all, Damon had relatively little news but, when we asked him if Bourne 4 would happen, had this to say:
"Maybe, if we can figure out a good story. If you have a good fourth Bourne story, call Universal and they'll give you a bunch of money!"
Is there pressure to do another one? "Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because even if we made a *horrible *movie, it would make money, and they know that. There's a huge amount of pressure. But it's not like somebody's hammering at our door. It's just that they would love to make another Bourne movie, and I understand why. It's so hard to have a sure thing in Hollywood, and this is as close as you get. So, from an executive's standpoint, I get it.
"It's just that our job, on the creative side, is to make sure that we create something that's of a standard. And this one's really tricky: you can't see the guy saying “I don't remember” any more, because he's lost and regained his memory three times already! And he's not like Bond, who goes on individual missions. I mean, you could make Bond movies forever, because you'd start each film at the beginning of a new mission.
"But Bourne isn't built that way, unfortunately. I mean, the studio would love that, they'd say, “Well, why don't you build him that way??” (Laughs) But, what, is he gonna go back and work for the government now? That doesn't make any sense. So it's a tricky one, trying to figure out a way, organically, to have a fourth story. But we want to do it.
"Paul said to me, “People stop me on the street all the time and say, 'Hey, are you gonna do another one of those movie? I really like those movies'. When the *audience *is saying that, that means something. We want to go, “Yeah, we love that character too.” So we wanna make another one. But we want to make it right."
On Green Zone, Damon and Paul Greengrass' Iraq drama, the star said, "It's great, I've seen it. They're finishing some of the effects, and it'll be ready for March. We got a $100m Iraq movie, so we'll see! I do have high hopes for it, though. I think it's really good. I know the Iraq movies haven't been particularly popular so far, but hopefully this will find an audience. It's a thriller, really, set against the canvas of Iraq in 2003."
For more from our Damo, and his reaction to The Informant!, head on over to his blog. For more from Matt Damon you'll have to wait until The Informant!'s release on November 20.