While doing some publicity for his current release Contagion, actor Matt Damon sat down to have a few words with The Shortlist, and they managed to get a couple quotes out of him that could spell good news for fans of Damon’s previous work. The next movie in the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy, will be the first one made without Damon or his lead character Jason Bourne, instead Jeremy Renner will star as a completely new character existing in the same universe.
When asked if this means he’s done playing Jason Bourne forever, Damon
responded, “I was always fine with them doing another Bourne movie as long as it didn’t preclude me and Paul [Greengrass] from doing another Bourne. From what I understand, it doesn’t at all, so that’s fine. I really want to do another one with Paul and I’m sure it’ll happen someday, but for now they’re doing this.” That’s kind of surprising to me, as I thought them moving the franchise on to Jeremy Renner specifically meant that Damon was done with the property. Maybe next we can get a big Renner vs. Damon movie where Matt returns to the character. I could see that making a ton of money.
That wasn’t the only moment in the interview where Damon waxed nostalgic, however. Back when he was just 28-years-old, Damon co-wrote the script for Good Will Hunting with his unofficial life partner Ben Affleck. The script won them the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, yet the duo haven’t written another movie together since. Now that Affleck seems to be focusing more on the writing and directing aspect of his career rather than the acting, The Shortlist asked if they ever planned on setting pen to paper together again.
Damon had this to say, “Yeah, we really want to work together again. We have a couple of things we’re developing and we have a deal together over at Warner Bros., but he’s making a great movie right now called Argo. It’s really, really good.” This is great news for me, as I’ve really liked Affleck’s efforts as a filmmaker so far and I really like Good Will Hunting. I think that the film started to get a bit of a bad rap back when Affleck became too famous for his own good, but if you look back on it, it really is a strong script, particularly for a first effort.
The future looks bright for fans of Matt Damon. You can love him or hate him, but you better get used to him, because he’s the best thing going today.
