Matt Damon may have had his breakthrough with Good Will Hunting but he became a global star when he starred in the Bourne franchise. The spy action drama acted as an antithesis to the genre defined by James Bond and Damon successfully turned into an action star. While he skipped The Bourne Legacy, he starred in all four other films in the franchise.
However, there would not have been a franchise if Damon and The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman decided to stick to an idea they came up with during the initial phase of production. While the films were based on Robert Ludlum’s novels, Liman reportedly decided to surprise the fans by killing off Jason Bourne in the first film.
Matt Damon and Doug Liman almost killed the Jason Bourne franchise in the first film
Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne franchise was based on the spy novels of legendary author Robert Ludlum. The story of a former CIA assassin waking up with no memories of his identity while his former agency is in hot pursuit is a genius premise that was accentuated with incredible action from director Doug Liman in The Bourne Identity.
Barring the fourth film The Bourne Legacy, Damon has starred in all the other films in the franchise and it propelled him to global stardom as an action star. The films were a rage and the franchise has collectively grossed over $1.6 billion at the box office (via The Numbers). However, the studio would have never seen this money if Liman had gone with an original idea.
Talking about his penchant for killing off Tom Cruise in their collaborations, Liman mentioned in an interview with Uproxx that his initial idea for The Bourne Identity was to kill off Jason Bourne in the end as a shocking twist. He said that Matt Damon too was on board. He said,
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? So we really were faced with one hell of a challenge.
The world thanks Liman for not killing Jason Bourne as Damon returned for three more sequels. However, Liman was replaced by Paul Greengrass, who the world can thank for giving the shaky cam/quick-cut style of action choreography that we still see in Marvel films.
Matt Damon’s The Bourne Identity was predicted to be a flop due to delays and reshoots
In the present day where the MCU reigns over Hollywood, reshoots are considered to be a norm that could only add value to the final product. However, back when Matt Damon was making The Bourne Identity, reshoots were a sign of trouble brewing in the production and that was actually true in the context of the Doug Liman directorial.
Several reports of Doug Liman being hated by the studio have made the rounds throughout the years. The filming went through several hurdles, including a last-minute replacement producer Frank Marshall coming on board and clashing with Liman. The former reportedly also filmed his own ending, fearing the original would be too depressing post-9/11.
The issues surrounding the film and significant reshoots reportedly led to the industry considering it dead on arrival and predicting failure. Matt Damon told GQ,
The word on Bourne was that it was supposed to be a turkey. It’s very rare that a movie comes out a year late, has four rounds of reshoots, and it’s good.
While the film was a huge box office success, earning over $214 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo), Liman lost the director’s job for the sequels, despite him being the one to pursue the rights for Robert Ludlum’s novels.
The Bourne Identity is available to rent on Apple TV.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
