One of the most gifted and varied performers in the entertainment business is Matt Damon. Over the years, he established strong filmography and demonstrated his extraordinary cinematic abilities. He has a number of blockbuster projects in which he starred, or created, which have earned him a tonne of love and acclaim from both fans and reviewers from different parts of the world.
His most established work would be the role of Jason Bourne from the spy movie series, the Bourne franchise. Upon the release of these movies, fans hooked themselves to this role, but the director of the movies, Doug Liman had some other plans. He wanted to end the franchise by killing the lead in the very first movie.
Matt Damon Was Almost Dropped Off by His Own Director
Matt Damon is a very well-known, if not the most famous actor, producer, and writer in the Hollywood industry. The actor has a wide range of talent up his sleeves, and no matter the situation is thrown at him, Damon will come in clutch. Currently, he is one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, his movies are worth billions of dollars, making him one of the highest-grossing actors to ever step foot in the industry. Damon will take on the role of Leslie Groves, an engineer who oversaw the Manhattan Project alongside J. Robert Oppenheimer, in the upcoming Christopher Nolan movie, Oppenheimer.
During an interview with Uproxx, Bourne franchise director Doug Liman shared that he tried to kill the main protagonist of the franchise to have an everlasting effect on the viewers.
“Matt Damon and I talked about killing Jason Bourne at the end of The Bourne Identity. We were like no one will see that coming! And obviously, we decided not to do that. But it wasn’t even about the sequel. It was just, would it be satisfying to the audience?”
His crazy ideas were one of the reasons Damon wanted to leave the billion-dollar franchise role, and this is not the first time Liman has developed such a wild proposition. As it turns out, the director did the same with Tom Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow, and fans loved it, but that was a sci-fi movie, he could be brought back from the dead, Bourne could not. But everything was sorted as there was no killing and the franchise went on to become the pinnacle of spy movies.
The Bourne Franchise Was One of the Fan-Favorites
Matt Damon is a superstar, whose career was greatly aided and strengthened by the Bourne series, which also gave him a strong foundation. Well, following his success as Jason Bourne, Damon’s reputation and esteem in the series surged. Matt Damon has starred in four of the five franchise films, the fourth movie was a spin-off, which had a combined budget of about $520 million and has amassed a total box office take of $1.66 billion.
The fourth film, The Bourne Legacy wasn’t well received as every other movie outperformed it. The movie garnered poor reviews and only made $280 million worldwide. Damon did, in fact, return for the fifth movie, Jason Bourne, he returned not only to save the franchise from shame but also to take the franchise to greater heights, which he did. The movie grossed over $416 million at the box office worldwide against a budget of $120 million.
Jason Bourne is available for streaming on Max.
Source: Uproxx
