'Bourne' Producer: No Matt Damon in Next Film

[AsAp]

"It's simply not true," says longtime producer Frank Marshall of the theory that the Universal film was pushed back one year in order to accommodate Damon's return.

 

Frank Marshall, the longtime producer of the Jason Bourne films, is shooting down speculation that Matt Damon will return as Bourne in the next installment dated July PHOTOS Behind the Scenes of THR's Jeremy Renner Cover Shoot

"It's simply not true," Marshall tells THR, adding that the film will feature the Aaron Cross character played by Jeremy Renner in the 2012 installment, The Bourne Legacy. "[Director] Justin Lin is working with Andrew Baldwin on an Aaron Cross script/story that they pitched us a few months ago. I talk to Justin all the time and the script is not ready. It's a summer movie, and if we don't start preproduction now, we can't make next summer. Therefore, it's a wise decision to move to 2016."

PHOTOS Top 15 Highest-Grossing Threequelsof All Time

The notion that Damon would return was floated by the Latino Review website and promptly picked up elsewhere.

Damon has said previously that he would not reprise his role unless Paul Greengrassreturned as director. Greengrass directed the 2004 film, The Bourne Supremacy, and the 2007 installment, The Bourne Ultimatum, but clashed with longtime Bourne screenwriterTony Gilroy. Gilroy then replaced Greengrass on The Bourne Legacy with Renner as the star. That film grossed $276 million worldwide, a steep drop from the previous Bourne film with Damon, which grossed $443 million worldwide.