“Bourne” again? New Jason Bourne movie in the works with “All Quiet on the Western Front” director

The project would mark the sixth "Bourne" film from Universal.

Jason Bourne could be headed back to the big screen.

Universal Pictures is in the early stages of developing a new installment of the Bourne movie franchise, with All Quiet on the Western Front filmmaker Edward Berger in talks to direct, EW has learned.

The project, which doesn't yet have a script or star, would be the sixth Bourne movie and the first since 2016's Jason Bourne. That film saw both leading man Matt Damon and Bourne Supremacy/Ultimatum director Paul Greengrass return to the franchise after sitting out The Bourne Legacy.

According to Deadline Hollywood, which first reported the news, Damon is not attached to the new project but would be approached once a script materializes. If things were to move forward without Damon, it’s unclear whether the studio would recast protagonist Jason Bourne or accommodate a new central character. Universal went the latter route with 2012's Legacy, which starred Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross, another covert operative with ties to the shadowy organization known as Treadstone. A short-lived Treadstone TV series also aired on USA in 2019. Damon had previously expressed a lack of interest in returning to the series without Greengrass at the helm.

Universal had adapted all three of Robert Ludlum's original Bourne novels by 2007 with the acclaimed Bourne Ultimatum. But author Eric Van Lustbader has written 11 additional entries in the series with the approval of Ludlum's estate, and Brian Freeman and Joshua Hood have each written four books in the Bourne universe, so there’s no shortage of material to draw on.

As for Berger, his All Quiet on the Western Front was the second-winningest film at last year's Oscars, after Everything Everywhere All at Once, taking home trophies for for International Feature, Cinematography, Score, and Production Design.

Berger's next screen project is the thriller Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Isabella Rossellini.

Damon has several projects set for 2024, including Drive-Away Dolls, reuniting him with True Grit director Ethan Coen; If, which will see him reteam with Promised Land costar John Krasinski; and The Instigator, which will be Damon’s first collaboration with filmmaker Doug Liman since The Bourne Identity.

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