Bourne 4 Gets New Screenwriter for “Parallel Script”

Full disclosure: against all odds, I have never seen a single entry in the Jason Bourne series, despite great reviews and the fact that they’re way up my alley. I don’t know. Call me crazy.

Now then, Matt Damon revealed to Entertainment Weekly last week that the film was in progress, but did not yet have a script in place, and that Josh Zetumer, the unproven screenwriter behind Peter Berg’s Dune remake, had been hired to craft a “parallel script” alongside the work of George Nolfi’s script. Zetumer’s work is in place to be used while Nolfi is working on and finishing his own project, The Adjustment Bureau, when it is hoped he’ll return to work on Bourne 4.

This is apparently a rare practice in studio politics, drafting two different versions of a script to be simultaneously employed on a set. (Hollywood Reporter theorizes that the travesty of X-Men Origins: Wolverine was due to this strategy, leading to a messy hodge-podge of several writers ideas.)

Let’s hope the result of this gamble is something better than that. From my perspective, I’d probably trust Nolfi’s draft more — he’s a proven screenwriter who apparently crafted what is arguably the best entry in the series, according to my surrounding Bourne fanboys.

Regardless, Bourne 4 will be the first film in the series not based on a Robert Ludlum novel, and will most likely take Bourne to South America as per producer Frank Marshall’s wishes. Hopefully the film gets crafted sooner rather than later — I have a whole series to catch up on in preparation.