Damon Ready To Be 'Bourne' Again

Following up on a trio of successful movies where he portrayed Jason Bourne, Matt Damon told Parade Magazine that he is ready to play the role for a fourth time.

Parade interviewed Damon while he was on set in South Africa filming "The Human Factor."

• Q: Is it official that you'll return as Jason Bourne for a fourth time?
• A: We're working on it. This time it would be from an original script rather than a book by Robert Ludlum. But the director, Paul Greengrass, is busy and I am too, so we'll see what happens.
• Q: Are you ready to be Bourne again?
• A: Listen, when I did the first movie, I was 29 years old. I am 37 now, and after a tough fighting scene, the next day you wake up and feel your body more. That's just the way it is.

The late author Robert Ludlum wrote only three novels about the secret agent with memory problems. And, apparently, the film's producers have decided to "forget" about a pair of sequels penned by Eric Van Lustbader: "The Bourne Legacy" and "The Bourne Betrayal."

Even though the intention was to film only the three Ludlum novels, a fourth "Bourne" movie makes sense, as each installment of the popular series has done better than the last. "The Bourne Identity," released in 2002, pulled in $121 million. "The Bourne Supremacy," released in 2004, made $176 million. And "The Bourne Ultimatum," from 2007, pulled in $227 million.

Damon has been ambivalent in the past about doing another movie, even joking on "The Daily Show" that a fourth movie could be called "The Bourne Redundancy."

However, in October, Universal tapped George Nolfi to write the script for a new movie and secured Paul Greengrass to direct and Damon to star. The movie will be produced by Frank Marshall, with Jeffrey Weiner and Henry Morrison as executive producers.

The plan is to release the movie next summer.

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As for Damon's current project, "The Human Factor" is scheduled to be released in December of this year. In the Clint Eastwood-directed movie, Morgan Freeman will play former South African leader Nelson Mandela. The film, based on John Carlin's book "Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela + The Game That Made a Nation," follows Mandela's campaign to bring the 1995 Rugby World Cup to South Africa.