Just a little over one week short of a year to the date of the release of The Bourne Legacy, Universal Pictures is making plans to move forward with their lucrative “Bourne” franchise, having hired writer Anthony Peckham (Sherlock Holmes, Invictus) to script the fifth installment which will once again feature Jeremy Renner’s character Aaron Cross.
Directed by regular series writer Tony Gilroy, The Bourne Legacy opened domestically on August 10, 2012 to the tune of $38.1 million its opening weekend and while it went on to make just $113.2 million domestically, its $276.6 million worldwide gross proved that the franchise was strong and the world was ready for a new Bourne lead, following the departure of Matt Damon.
Jeremy Renner’s Cross was a new agent introduced in “Legacy” who had been enhanced medically to be smarter and stronger than other agents as part of Operation Outcome until he was targeted for termination. According to Deadline, Universal hopes there’s enough interest to keep following that divergent storyline masterminded by Gilroy, which moved away from the original concept in the late Robert Ludlum’s novels, in hopes to keep the franchise going with the ever-decreasing chances of Damon returning.
