Jul 13, 2011

Tradecraft: Ed Norton to Antagonize Non-Bourne?

The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision blog is reporting that Edward Norton is in talks to reteam with his Rounders co-star Matt Damon in... Oh, wait! No, he's not in it. Right, right; this is the Bourne movie without Bourne, Tony Gilroy's odd franchise spin-off The Bourne Legacy. Let's start again. Heat Vision reports that Norton is in talks to star opposite Jeremy Renner, the de facto spy fill-in of the moment (also reportedly set to take the Mission: Impossible torch from Tom Cruise after their co-starring turn in Ghost Protocol), in The Bourne Legacy. Norton would play the villain, which is cool. (But it would have been cooler to see him go up against Damon, I think.) Hiring Ed Norton makes me think that this villain will have more lines than the traditionally silent Bourne antagonists, like Clive Owen in the first film, Karl Urban in the second and Edgar Ramirez in the third. (Ironically, Ramirez went on to portray Carlos the Jackal, Bourne's antagonist from the Robert Ludlum books, so far absent from all the new movies, in the acclaimed mini-series Carlos.) Heat Vision also reports that the newly minted Mrs. Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, is co-starring in the film; last I'd heard her involvement was far from firm. This movie is shaping up to have a terrific cast, and I hope the finished product equals or exceeds the sum of its parts. I'd be 200% on board if Renner was playing David Webb (the character best known as Jason Bourne, formerly played by Matt Damon), 007-style. The only thing that has me apprehensive about this movie is the weird spin-off movie. Who wants to watch a movie where the main character is just some random other guy from the same universe as the title character? Gilroy is a very good writer and director, but he has his work cut out for him making this work. I'm definitely hoping he pulls it off, because I love these movies...

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