'Bourne 4' falls foul of director's artistic dispute

Paul Greengrass (L) and Matt Damon have worked closely together on the last two Bourne films. Photo / Supplied

In a career spanning three action movies, Jason Bourne has survived repeated attempts on his life by drug barons, the CIA, Russian gangsters and security forces representing half of Nato.

But now he faces perhaps his greatest threat: a British film director with a serious axe to grind.

The future of the rogue secret agent, who is at the centre of one of Hollywood's most valuable franchises, has been imperiled after it was reported that film director Paul Greengrass had resigned from the fourth instalment of the blockbuster series, following a dispute with its studio, Universal Pictures.

Greengrass, who directed 2004's Bourne Supremacy and 2007's Bourne Ultimatum, which made a combined total of more than US$700 million ($963 million) at the box office, is said to have removed himself from the helm of the still unnamed "Bourne 4" after learning Universal had hired a screenwriter to work on its script without consulting him.

The move threatens the entire film, since it could throw the participation of Matt Damon, the star who plays the title role, into doubt. Damon is fiercely loyal to the British director, who shot to fame with the thriller United 93, and will star in his forthcoming Iraq war film, Green Zone, due out next year.

Neither Greengrass, Damon nor Universal have confirmed or denied the reported resignation, which apparently occurred a week ago. Sources said there had been an "artistic dispute" which all parties were "working to resolve".

The Playlist, a film industry blog which broke the news, said the row revolved around a decision by Universal to hire Josh Zetumer to write a "parallel script" for the film, which has a reported budget of US$200 million.

The original script, submitted by Greengrass' favoured writer George Nolfi a few months ago, apparently failed to garner sufficient praise when it was shown to the studio's executives.

Greengrass was not told about the change of writers and is said to have been highly upset that it was made without him being consulted. He has already been in conflict with Universal over the cost of Green Zone, another one of their projects, which has already reached at least US$100 million - a significant sum given that films about Iraq tend to perform poorly at the box office.

Universal has released a string of expensive flops this year and is anxious to stop the budget for "Bourne 4" running out of control. The Bourne Ultimatum, although it was a commercial success, making US$440 million at the box office, set them back far more than originally planned, partly because Mr Greengrass never had a completed script and ended up carrying out several expensive reshoots.

Without Greengrass, Universal could mount a charm offensive to keep Damon and get Doug Liman, who directed the original 2002 film The Bourne Identity, to return to the helm.

Provided they can keep the stars of the franchise attached, Universal certainly has plenty of material to allow them to carry on churning out Bourne films, which are based on a trilogy of novels by Robert Ludlum, who died in 2001. Since then, no fewer than four subsequent books have been ghost-written and released.

- INDEPENDENT