5 Things You Might Not Know About 'The Bourne Identity,' Released 10 Years Ago Today

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by Oliver Lyttelton
June 14, 2012 2:01 PM
5 Comments

3. We could have seen Sylvester Stallone or Russell Crowe as Jason Bourne.
One of the things that set the Bourne films apart from the competition is its star. At the time, Matt Damon was not exactly recognized as an action hero, better known for softer, or more morally ambiguous turns, in films like "The Legend Of Bagger Vance" or "The Talented Mr. Ripley." To see him as an unlikely killing machine was undoubtedly the film's most impressive special effect, but it could have turned out very differently. Liman told the BBC when the film was released that he "Met with a wide range of people when casting for the film, people like Russell Crowe and even Sly Stallone at one point." Fortunately, he went in another direction entirely, although both Brad Pitt and Matthew McConaughey were also considered before Damon came on board. It's not the only casting couldabeen: Marie was actually Canadian in earlier drafts (as in the novel), and Liman offered the part to Sarah Polley, star of his most recent film "Go," and now director of "Take This Waltz" and "Away From Her." But Polley turned it down (as she had the part of Penny Lane in "Almost Famous" a few years earlier), so "Run Lola Run" lead Franka Potente ended up in the part. One veteran actress also ended up the cutting room floor: Judy Parfitt (from "Girl With A Pearl Earring" and Gilroy's "Dolores Clairborne") had a scene as a psychologist brought in by the CIA to evaluate Bourne from afar, but it was cut in post, although can be seen on the DVD.

4. The film had a notoriously tumultous production, with the ending in particular heavily rewritten and reshot.
The recent spate of tentpoles being heavily delayed and reshot -- "World War Z," "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," "The Lone Ranger," "Jack The Giant Killer" et al. -- should take heart that heavy delays and retooling won't necessarily prevent them from becoming huge hits and spawning franchises. Because that's exactly what happened with "The Bourne Identity."

Because of all the myriad problems during the production, almost everyone invovled assume 'Identity' was going to turn out to be an expensive bomb. "The word on Bourne was that it was supposed to be a turkey," Damon said in a recent GQ interview. "It's very rare that a movie comes out a year late, has four rounds of reshoots, and it's good." Others agree. "Oh yeah, oh man, nobody was more surprised then me," Tony Gilroy said about how the film was ultimately salvaged and became a success in a recent interview with The Playlist (more of which you'll see closer to the release of "The Bourne Legacy"). And as near-legendary as its problems were, apparently not all of the story has been told. "It's a story that people have avoided talking about for a long time," Gilroy told us.

Liman, known to be super rebellious and not taking no as an answer from studios, was upfront about the issues in a 2008 interview. "Universal hated me,” he said. “I had an archenemy in the studio. They were trying to shut me down. The producers were bad guys.” Liman came from the independent world, and was even hired on that basis, Universal hoping that he'd bring something fresh to the genre: studio chairman Stacey Snider told the Wall Street Journal at the time that "I was intrigued by the pairing of an independent-minded filmmaker with a familiar studio genre. Look, I'm a moviegoer and I'm bored. I'm getting tired of movies that all look the same." But an extremely costly production, where Liman would flip-flop on decisions, change his mind and constantly redo scenes created a rift between Universal and the director so deep, that at points during filming, all communication was cut off and Damon had to step in as a communique emmisary. “I would be his surrogate because at least I could be heard,” Damon told Vulture in 2008, but things got so bad that when Liman would ask to reshoot a scene, producers would immediately say no.

At one point when the rebellious Liman was told he wasn't allowed to reshoot a scene, he went rogue and shot it anyhow. “That was the huge epic screaming fight, the biggest screaming fight on the set ever,” Liman said in 2008. The fight was so bad Liman apparently explored the option of auctioning off his director’s credit on eBay.

But by his own admission, Liman was "flippant" and difficult with the studio from the get go, fighting them tooth and nail on the project. Universal's suggestion that they shoot in Montreal for Paris led to the director's reaction of "What are they talking about? Because they speak French in Montreal, it's going to look like Paris? Nothing looks like Paris." And once on set, he hired a French crew that didn't speak English, and insisted on operating the camera himself. Liman and Gilroy fell out on set (though the writer considers it the best of the initial trilogy) over the director's processes, Gilroy later telling the New Yorker "He didn’t have any sense of story, or cause and effect," while Liman for his part referred to the scribe as "arrogant."

Nevertheless, Gilroy was faxing rewrites on to set throughout production, and was involved in an extensive third-act rewrite (there had been talk of replacing him on the film, but Damon insisted that Gilroy stay on board). The studio wanted the farmhouse sequence (a mostly quiet, extended tangent) excised, and action in the ending boosted up, while taking out a fire scene that they weren't confident that Liman would be able to deliver. The director and star successfully fought for the farmhouse, but acquiesced on the end, with the film being delayed nearly nine months, from September 7th 2001 (a date that likely would have buried the film, in retrospect) to May 31st 2002 (it was later pushed back two weeks to distance it from Damon's other summer picture, animation "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron." Making matters worse was September 11, 2001 where everything changed -- especially the nature of political spy movies with action -- and the producers decided one of the major explosion sequences in the ending had to be dropped. In fact, on "The Bourne Identity" DVD producer Frank Marshall talks about the "insurance policy" new ending that was shot just in case. It's present as an extra on the DVD in full and show Bourne meeting up with Conklin's boss, Deputy Director Ward Abbott (Brian Cox, who he actually never meets until "The Bourne Supremacy"). The tone is wildly different from what you've seen in the 'Bourne' scenes so much so that you could never even fit them into the series continuity now (Abbot offers his help to Bourne, asks him to rejoin the CIA and when Bourne refuses, the Director essentially tells him they'll be watching him from afar).

The reshoots took place over 10 days in two different countries, extensively reworking the last act of the film, although Julia Stiles' unavailability meant that her old scenes had to been incorporated into the rest. The turmoil meant that Liman wasn't asked back for the second installment, although he'd go on to make equally fraught-with-production-problem blockbusters "Mr. And Mrs. Smith" and "Jumper." Even though Bourne was saved -- from would-be turd to $213 million worldwide -- none of it would appease Universal who now owned the rights and kicked him to the curb, banning him from other sequels. “I lost my baby,” he said (Liman now has a mostly meaningless "executive producer" credit on the 'Bourne' films, but bringing him back into the fold would be nothing short of a miracle).

To this day rumors persist that Liman was fired after production was done and Frank Marshall and the editors finished up the film. Tellingly, Marshall, Gilroy, Damon and several other production members appear in various elements of the bountiful "The Bourne Identity" DVD extras and features, but Liman is nowhere to be seen or found.

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More: 5 Things You Might Not Know About..., The Bourne Legacy, Matt Damon, Clive Owen, Chris Cooper, On This Day In Movie History, Doug Liman, Tony Gilroy

5 Comments

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Nick | June 24, 2012 2:38 PMReply

> "Tellingly, Marshall, Gilroy, Damon and several other production members appear in various elements of the bountiful "The Bourne Identity" DVD extras and features, but Liman is nowhere to be seen or found."

Not quite true: the film's original DVD release includes a commentary from Liman. (However, it was omitted from the Special Edition DVD re-release, and I'm not sure if it's on the Blu-Ray)
Stevo the Magnificent | June 16, 2012 12:04 AMReply

One of the best action movies yet made without a doubt; tight, focused, emotionally engaging, thrilling, and not a single moment that's extraneous. I haven't a clue who should take the credit for how well it (and it's two superb sequels) all worked out, but I just know how good all three are, and I hope the eventual '24' movie will be as good...
sidsbowl | June 15, 2012 8:39 AMReply

Gilroy took a big check to write a draft of Ultimatum that was rejected as "unfilmable" and then refused to do any rewrites, putting the production in a terrible position. Ultimatum was written by Scott Z Burns. Funny how Gilroy keeps forgetting that.

The ending for Supremacy was rewritten by Matt Damon and George Nolfi. Their ending scored ten points higher with audiences.
Writers | June 16, 2012 11:15 PM

You're right -- I think Gilroy receives an undue amount of credit for these films. Particularly when he personally hates them.

Supremacy was a mix of Gilroy and Brian Helgeland -- Greengrass cut-n-pasted a shooting script together -- which is why Gilroy hates Greengrass more than Liman. And as you said, the Supremacy got a new ending written by George Nolfi.

Ultimatum -- Gilroy didn't want to work with Greengrass again, so he took the (first draft only) money and ran. But his first draft was NOT unfilmable, and a LOT of it remains in the finished film (in story at least). After Gilroy, they hired Tom Stoppard. Not sure what he contributed (if anything). Then, Nolfi and Scott Z Burns, and the shooting script was a cut-n-paste mess AGAIN, but it resulted in the best film of the series.
Hewston | June 15, 2012 3:28 AMReply

Love these features, please keep them up.