From director Gus Van Sant, the small town drama Promised Land tells the story of Steve Butler (Matt Damon), a corporate salesman who has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner (Frances McDormand) to see if the two can get the citizens to sign over the drilling rights to their properties.  But, when an environmental activist (John Krasinski) arrives in town, the residents start to question what’s best for themselves and their community.  For more on Promised Land, here are seven clips and the trailer.

At the film’s press day, actor Matt Damon talked about how quickly they shot the film, having a rough cut done four weeks ahead of schedule, how he came to collaborate on the script with Krasinski, their process for writing together, working with McDormand, what made Van Sant the right director when he decided he wouldn’t be able to take that on himself, and why this was an important story for him to tell.  He also talked about kissing Michael Douglas in Behind the Candelabra, an HBO movie about the relationship between Liberace and his younger live-in lover, and whether he’d ever consider returning to the role of Jason Bourne.  Check out what he had to say after the jump.

How do you make a Jason Bourne film without Matt Damon? There are a couple of options: you can remake the first film, or you can spin-off in a new direction.  What’s most frustrating about The Bourne Legacy is that it takes a third option, which is to pretend that Damon is actually a character in this world, but he’s just not on screen.  Perhaps Universal was stuck between a rock and a hard place. They couldn’t kill Damon off-camera, and they probably hope he’ll come back for more, so instead they brought in Jeremy Renner for a story that runs in parallel to the end of The Bourne Ultimatum, but doesn’t do anything to move the franchise forward.  It is also pretty bad. Our review of the Blu-ray of The Bourne Legacy follows after the jump.

When it was first announced that the Bourne franchise would be undergoing a reboot without Matt Damon or the Jason Bourne character, fans wondered whether this meant the end of Damon’s Bourne films.  The actor remained optimistic that he could eventually return to the series one day with director Paul Greengrass, who helmed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum, so everyone remained optimistic that we’d see a proper sequel to Ultimatum someday.  Screenwriter Tony Gilroy took over directing duties for the spin-off of sorts, The Bourne Legacy, setting up a story that overlapped with the events of Ultimatum but focused on a new character played by Jeremy Renner who had an obsessive fixation on chems.

Throughout the development of Legacy, Damon still maintained that he might return to the franchise at some point, and Gilroy made it clear that he hoped to team Damon and Renner up in a future installment.  Well now all of that seems unlikely, as Damon recently revealed that he probably won’t be reprising the Jason Bourne character again.  Hit the jump for more.

Director Paul Greengrass created what it meant to be a “Bourne” movie with The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum.  If the James Bond movies are girls, gadgets, cars, and supervillains, then Bourne was going to be about intense action scenes, desperate chases, paranoia, and political commentary.  Sadly, Greengrass did not return to the Bourne franchise, and co-writer and director Tony Gilroy has set the series back with the flabby and forgettable The Bourne Legacy.  Gilroy attempts to write his own set of rules by playing against a traditional three-act structure, which is fine in theory, but in practice it creates a film that’s constantly losing momentum, and never sure where to focus its energy.  The movie’s saving grace is Jeremy Renner, who gets to be in the mold of Jason Bourne but find new strengths and weaknesses that set him apart from the eponymous spy.  Sadly, the rest of The Bourne Legacy never follows Renner’s lead to find a fresh direction while still retaining what worked about the past two movies.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.  Click here for my review of The Bourne Identity and click here for my review of The Bourne Supremacy.]

In 2004, the post-9/11 American had begun to take shape and The Bourne Supremacy reflected that change.  It provided a conscious subtext, but the movie remained first and foremost an action-thriller.  But by 2007, the change in our country was no longer worthy of a simple observation.  The change had produced a feeling, and that feeling was anger.  We had been misled into a war, and the government was taking extraordinary powers against Americans in the name of protecting Americans.  The Bourne Ultimatum is unapologetically political, which is its greatest weakness and its greatest strength.  Director Paul Greengrass still delivers a pulse-pounding blockbuster that retains the same intensity of Supremacy, but he pushes audiences to not only recognize the seismic shift in our country, but to confront our complicity in it.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.  Click here for my review of The Bourne Identity.]

The identity of the Bourne franchise begins in the third act of The Bourne Identity.  It’s when the character’s strengths and weaknesses begin to arise, and The Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass took note of where not only the character was going, but where America was going.  The Bourne Identity came out in June 2002, and the sense of our country’s post-9/11 world was still hazy.  By the time The Bourne Supremacy arrived on July 23, 2004, the reverberations were clear.  We had been led into a war based on faulty intelligence that was cherry-picked so that we could attack a country that had nothing to do with 9/11.  Greengrass wasn’t obligated to insert the subtext into his spy thriller, but he was savvy enough to leave the political commentary simmering underneath an intense action flick that not only boosted Matt Damon‘s credibility as a kick-ass hero, but found a way to use hand-held cinematography to its full effect rather than a lazy shortcut.

[With The Bourne Legacy set to open this Friday, we'll be taking a look back at the original Bourne trilogy.  These reviews will contain spoilers since the movies have been out for years.]

In the years following his breakthrough success with Good Will Hunting, Matt Damon‘s career had hit a snag.  He was a talented actor who had made a series of bad choices in terms of leading roles.  Furthermore, he had never taken on the role of an action hero, but Universal took a chance on the actor, and had him star in the thriller The Bourne Identity.  Director Doug Liman has also never done an action film before, and had made his name on the indie features Swingers and Go.  Strangely, neither the director nor his star does a particularly great job with the film, but it was a hit and led to two excellent features once Paul Greengrass took over the franchise.  I didn’t care much for The Bourne Identity when I saw it back when it was released in 2002.  I hadn’t revisited the movie until today, and unfortunately, it still has a lot of problems.  Thankfully, these problems then serve to illustrate what makes the character works and separates him from other action heroes.

Yesteday, Universal released the first clip from The Bourne Legacy, and they’ve released another one today.  For those unfamiliar with the franchise reboot, this time around, a government task force led by Edward Norton‘s character is assassinating all their genetically-modified assets to prevent another Bourne situation.  However, one member of the program, Aaron Cross (Jeremy Renner), manages to escape with a scientist (Rachel Weisz), and the two go on the run for their lives.  The previous clip showed the two running away, and this clip shows them motorcycling away.  Writer-director Tony Gilroy looks like he’s done a good job of carrying over previous director Paul Greengrass‘ handheld kinetic style while still retaining the clarity of the set pieces.  The stunts look like they’ll be a lot of fun, but now I want to see how the great cast performs outside of chase scenes.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The film also stars Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Stacy Keach, Scott Glenn, Corey Stoll, and Donna Murphy.  The Bourne Legacy opens August 10th.

Even though it’s less than a month away, I keep forgetting The Bourne Legacy exists.  It’s not because I’m uninterested in the film.  It’s just positioned near the end of the summer, and has been overshadowed by some movie involving a crime fighter dressed as a rodent.  But with The Dark Knight Rises finally set to open on Friday, Universal is now beginning to remind audiences that there’s a new Jason Bourne aka “Aaron Cross” (Jeremy Renner) on the block.  The studio has released the first clip from the film, and it features a lot of running and screaming before finishing up with an awesome take down of a couple hapless cops.

Hit the jump to check out the clip.  The film also stars Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Stacy Keach, Scott Glenn, Corey Stoll and Donna Murphy.  The Bourne Legacy opens August 10th.

A new image from Tony Gilroy‘s The Bourne Legacy has gone online.  We had previously seen set photos of co-star Rachel Weisz, but this is the first official image of Weisz’ mysterious character, Marta, and we see her standing next to the new Jason Bourne (Jeremy Renner).  Wesiz is tight-lipped about her character details, telling EW “What am I allowed to say? I think almost nothing at all.”  I didn’t really think the veil of super-secrecy extended to a Bourne movie (it’s not like she’s playing a character we already know from some other medium), but perhaps she has a more complex role than simply a love-interest who gets swept up in Bourne’s intrigue (a la Franke Potente in The Bourne Identity).

Hit the jump to check out the image.  The film also stars Edward Norton, Oscar Isaac, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, Albert Finney, Stacy Keach, Scott Glenn, Corey Stoll and Donna Murphy.  The Bourne Legacy opens August 3rd.

Universal is moving ahead with the Jason Bourne franchise and they’re doing it without Matt Damon.  As we previously reported, Tony Gilroy will direct The Bourne Legacy from his own script and the movie will be Bourne-less.  While initial reports seemed the show that Damon was miffed at his exclusion, in a recent interview with EW, he explains that he thinks it’s a smart move and it opens the door for a future Bourne movie directed by Paul Greengrass (who helmed The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum).  Said Damon:

As I understand it, Jason Bourne is alive in the world that Tony’s going to create. I don’t appear in it, but it’s very much that world. As far as Paul and I are concerned, as long as there’s room for us to come in and do another one, we’re thrilled.

Hit the jump for more on what Damon had to say regarding his schedule concerning Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion and Liberace biopic, and Cameron Crowe’s We Built a Zoo.

Originally set to shoot this summer, Steven Sodebergh’s Liberace biopic starring Michael Douglas and Matt Damon has been pushed back to summer 2011.  Filming was delayed when Soderbergh decided to go forward with the world-spanning thriller Contagion instead (which will also star Damon as well as Kate Winslet, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Marion Cotillard).  Now, according to the Las Vegas Sun [via The Playlist], filming has been slightly delayed, but Damon says he’s still on board to play Liberace’s lover Scott Thorson and Douglas is still set to play Liberace.

But if flamboyant 60s entertainers aren’t really your thing, how would you like to have your emotions toyed with by having Damon not completely rule out a return to playing Jason Bourne?  Hit the jump for more.

Since the last Jason Bourne movie was released, everyone has wondered when another sequel would be made.  With the huge worldwide box office grosses and critical success, you’d think it would be easy to get another sequel off the ground.  But time and again, Matt Damon has said they’d only do another sequel if the script was good.  Add to that, director Paul Greengrass recently said he wasn’t going to do another Bourne sequel.

So when I sat down at today’s press junket for Green Zone and was able to participate in small roundtable interviews with the star and director, the one thing I really wanted to know was what exactly was up with another Bourne sequel.  Thankfully, I was able to ask both of them that question.  Unfortunately for fans of the Bourne franchise, it’s very bad news.

First off, Greengrass told me he’s definitely not making another Jason Bourne movie.  And on top of that, Damon told me he would never make another Bourne movie without Greengrass.  So…that’s it. The nail is in the coffin.  I hope you enjoyed the three Bourne movies cause it’s over.

Or is it?  Hit the jump for more:

As we reported yesterday, director Paul Greengrass has will not direct the highly-anticipated fourth installment of the Bourne franchise .  Greengrass issued to following statement [via BFDMemo]:

You won’t find a more devoted supporter of the Bourne franchise than me. I will always be grateful to have been the caretaker to Jason Bourne over the course of The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum. I’m very proud of those films and feel they express everything I most passionately believe about the possibility of making quality movies in the mainstream. My decision to not return a third time as director is simply about feeling the call for a different challenge. There’s been no disagreement with Universal Pictures. The opportunity to work with the Bourne family again is a difficult thing to pass up, but we have discussed this together and they have been incredibly understanding and supportive. I’ve been lucky enough to have made four films for Universal, and our relationship continues. Jason Bourne existed before me and will continue, and I hope to remain involved in some capacity as the series moves on.

Now whether you think that’s just a long-winded way of saying “creative differences” or that Greengrass is making sure not to burn a bridge or if this is the straight dope, the truth still remains that whenever we see the 4^th Jason Bourne movie, it won’t have Paul Greengrass as its director.  Now the question becomes if Greengrass’ departure means Matt Damon, whose loyalty lies with his director, will still return.

Just a few minutes ago I attended a press conference for Warner Bros. “The Informant!” here in Toronto. After the press conference ended, I managed to ask Matt Damon some questions about the possibility of a 4^th “Bourne” movie. Since he’s been giving the same answer for the last few weeks about needing to find the right story to justify making the film, I wanted to know if he’d actually read any of the drafts that the studio has been developing and what he thought. According to Matt, he hasn’t. But that’s not the big news, as Matt told me in a few weeks he’ll be meeting up with director Paul Greengrass in New York City to finally discuss making the 4^th movie! More after the jump: