Universal signs mega-deal for Jason Bourne rights, signals more movies to come

Expect to see more Jason Bourne on your screens.

The amnesiac super spy is set for a new era after Universal bought the perpetual rights to Robert Ludlum’s Bourne and Treadstone books in a deal worth nine figures, according to Variety.

The trade publication said Universal emerged victorious from a competitive bidding that involved offers from seven studios and streamers. A nine-figure deal would make Bourne one of the most expensive rights agreements.

For context, in 2012, Reese Witherspoon’s production company paid $US1.5 million for the screen rights to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl book. At the most extreme end of the upper reaches, Amazon shelled out a blockbuster $US250 million for not the rights to the Lord of the Rings books, which sit with Warner Bros, but to the appendices of J.R.R. Tolkien’s work, which it turned into The Rings of Power prequel series.

Given the amount of money involved, Universal clearly sees a lucrative future from further instalments or reboots of the Bourne stories.

The studio also made the five existing Bourne films, which have collectively grossed $US1.63 billion. Universal would also have access to data indicating whether those movies continue to be popular on streaming or digital rental and download.

Universal has not indicated whether it plans to make sequels, spin-offs or reboots from the Ludlum books, only that it was would expand the franchise with “exciting new stories for global audiences”, the studio president Peter Cramer said.

Producer Frank Marshall, who has worked on the Bourne movies for more than two decades, will continue to shepherd future projects.

The first Bourne movie, The Bourne Identity, was released in 2002 with director Doug Liman at the helm. It starred Matt Damon as a CIA operative who wakes up with no memory of who he is or how he sustained and survived two gunshot wounds.

It also starred Franka Potente, Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Julia Stiles and Brian Cox.

It was quickly followed up by two sequels, The Bourne Supremacy in 2004 and The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, both directed by Paul Greengrass, a British filmmaker who had a penchant for intimate, hand-held camerawork.

The critical and commercial success of the first two films with its grittier, fast-paced and action-forward approach to a spy thriller had a wider influence on the genre in general and more specifically on the James Bond franchise.

When Eon Productions rebooted Bond in 2006 with Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, it was clear it had taken on lessons from Bourne.

Damon didn’t return for the fourth film, The Bourne Legacy, a spin-off which starred Jeremy Renner as another agent whose fate was entwined with the events of the main trilogy.

In 2016, Damon and Greengrass reunited for Jason Bourne, set 12 years after the first film.

There was also a 2019 drama series called Treadstone, set in the same narrative universe as the films, telling the origin story of the black ops program Jason Bourne had exposed in the movies. It was cancelled after one season.

The Universal Studios theme-park in Florida has a Bourne-themed ride called The Bourne Stuntacular.

Ludlum died in 2001. Only the first three books in the series were written by him but the series was continued after his death.

A further 19 Bourne books have been published, starting from 2004, written by Eric Van Lustbader and Brian Freeman. There are also another four Treadstone books and two Blackbriar ones, all by different authors after Ludlum’s death.

The Bourne Identity was originally adapted as a TV miniseries in 1988, starring Richard Chamberlain as the titular spy.