Director Paul Greengrass ‘quits Bourne 4’ film

The fourth Bourne film, latest in the hugely successful franchise, is in jeopardy after its Bafta-winning director Paul Greengrass reportedly walked out on the project. According to film blog The Playlist, Greengrass - the British director who made his name in Hollywood directing two of the three Bourne films - quit 'Bourne 4' a week ago.
 
If the report, published last night, is correct, Greengrass's departure could also see the film's star Matt Damon go. Damon, who is arguably Hollywood's biggest star, is a long-time collaborator of Greengrass. As well as 2004's The Bourne Supremacy and 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum, the pair have worked together on a forthcoming Iraq war film, The Green Zone.
 
Greengrass (pictured right, with Damon) is said to be unhappy about the film's producers Universal bringing in an up-and-coming writer, Josh Zetumer, to produce a "parallel script" to the one already written by George Nolfi, who co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum.
 
Nolfi is a friend and collaborator of Damon as well as Greengrass. He wrote Oceans Twelve, in which Damon co-starred with George Clooney and Brad Pitt, and he is currently working with the actor on The Adjustment Bureau, based on a Phillip K Dick story.
 
As well as the friction over Zetumer, there is reported to have been frustration at Universal over the progress of The Green Zone. Bourne producers are irked that Greengrass's side project has delayed the development of their latest blockbuster while studio bosses are said to be angry over the way Greengrass has handled The Green Zone's budget - now sitting at $150 million after several reshoots.
 
The Bourne Ultimatum was supposed to be the final movie based on Robert Ludlum's three books about spy Jason Bourne. But when it won three Oscars and grossed $420 million at the box office worldwide – making it one of Universal's highest-earning films of all time - studio executives changed their mind and, just as the James Bond producers hired writers to produce new 007 stories, commissioned Nolfi to pen an original script. ·