Matt Damon and Director Paul Greengrass to Return for 'Bourne'

Looks like Jeremy Renner's days as star of the Bourne franchise have hit a speed bump. Matt Damon is returning to the franchise with director Paul Greengrass, according to a Deadline report on Monday.

Universal Pictures has begun making deals with Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass to reunite for their third film in The Bourne Identity series, sources tell me. This is an absolute stunner — and Universal would not comment nor would the reps — because Greengrass told Deadline as recently as last year that once Bourne regained his memory, there was no place else for the character to go creatively. His search formed the spine for the trilogy Damon starred in.

The last news we got about from the Bourne franchise was that Renner was still going to be the actor carrying it. The fifth Bourne movie had been pushed back to July 2016, but it was still on pace to happen. Now Deadline writes that Universal Pictures is ready to give that date to Damon's Bourne movie.

No word yet on whether Justin Lin is still on board to direct the next Renner-anchored Bourne movie. He signed on last November, but with Damon and Greengrass back, Lin's movie appears to be going on hold.