‘The Bourne Identity’ Director Doug Liman Still Doesn’t Know How To Feel About Bond Copying Bourne
By Jack Giroux/Jan. 15, 2021 11:30 am EST
To this day, Liman doesn’t know how to feel about it.
The filmmaker is back with a new movie on HBO Max, Locked Down, which depicts life under lockdown and a heist at Harrods. While interviewing Liman for his latest, we asked about Bourne’s influence on Hollywood and more specifically, Bond.
It remains surreal for Liman. “I didn’t quite know how to process that,” he added. “I still don’t know how to process that. I don’t know if I got what I wanted or didn’t get what I wanted. It’s beyond my computing power to know how to feel about that. It’s probably an unsatisfying answer. To say I’m annoyed or flattered would be easy, but I’m still confused about how should I feel this.”
Liman does, however, know how he feels about the risks he took with The Bourne Identity. The director has always seen himself as a rule-breaker. With the ending of his Bourne film, he went big by going small and defied Universal’s wishes. Bourne doesn’t fight off dozens after dozens of goons. Instead, only a handful.
“It’s still one of my favorite mementos from my career,” he concluded. “Universal told me the ending would be unsatisfying, and they wanted Jason Bourne to fight 200 people. I told the two executives to go eff themselves. Unfortunately, one of those executives now runs Netflix. I’m still proud of having sent that memo.”
