Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass have their third film together, the hugely enjoyable Green Zone, due for release in a couple of weeks; but while doing press for that film, they were both constantly asked about a fourth Bourne movie. Damon didn't give Collider.com the answer they wanted, but he did have a hugely interesting take on the franchise:
"Well, I think that they have a good way to do a prequel with someone else, and basically make it about the Bourne identity, the actual identity. What any studio is interested in is making it like an evergreen, so it can just go on, and on, and on, and it never will with our character because he’s going to resolve himself and he’s resolved his issues now. He’s got his memory back three times. I don’t think anybody wants to see me say, "I don’t remember" again. But I think what we could do, is like, you know, so you can do some movies with another actor, anyway, whether it’s Ryan Gosling or Russell Crowe or Denzel Washington, and he’s Jason Bourne. And then at the end of his one movie, or two movies, or three movies, you see them getting ready to pass the identity on to me, so it just becomes like a 007, it becomes a name that they give this certain person who’s uniquely positioned. Right? And so then, if Paul and I come back and do a fourth one in 10 years, right, we’ll pass it on to someone else, and then it can kind of go on. But I think the only way to make it go away from us is to say no."
It's a cracking idea, and in the Bourne universe it would make a lot of sense. It would just be finding the right lead and the right director to tackle the material, and make sure they don't kill the franchise. What about Matthew Vaughn directing Damon's pick, Ryan Gosling?