Matt Damon has more than one exciting lead role in the pipeline. His casting in Christopher’s next movie follows H๏τ on the heels of confirmation last year that he plans to be back as Jason Bourne for the sixth feature film of the Bourne franchise. But with Bourne 6 stalling following a 12-year streak of poor reviews and relatively middling box-office returns for the franchise, all eyes should be focused on the tantalizing prospect of Damon as the тιтular character in Nolan’s upcoming project.
Details released by Universal Pictures last month about the director’s next cinematic venture had us on the edge of our seats, not least because the likes of Damon, Spider-Man’s Tom Holland and Lupita Nyong’o were announced as part of the cast. Although Matt Damon has worked with Nolan twice before, on the blockbuster epics Interstellar and Oppenheimer, this third collaboration cements his place as one of the director’s go-to actors, alongside regular casting picks Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy. It also puts him in prime position to play the role of a lifetime, King Odysseus, in Nolan’s adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey.
Matt Damon Doing The Odyssey Sounds More Exciting Than Another Bourne Movie
Both He And Nolan Are Taking On A Brand New Challenge
Among the list of actors confirmed for Nolan’s Odyssey, Damon is the only one with the age, blockbuster experience and acting chops required to play the story’s central hero. His Odysseus won’t quite have the looks of a Greek god, to the extent that other swords-and-sandals heroes of the big screen like Gerard Butler’s Leonidas and Brad Pitt’s Achilles did.
But while Pitt in particular might have looked suitably Homeric in the movie Troy, neither he nor Butler have anything on Damon’s acting range. He can deliver the depth and complexity required of a character like Odysseus, who’s known for using his mind not his muscles to win the day. For what to expect from Damon’s Odysseus in the latest Christopher Nolan film to take a journey home, we need to cast our minds back a little further than 2004’s Troy and 2006’s 300.
While O Brother, Where Art Thou? has very little to do with Greek myths, on the face of it, its narrative, characterizations, and overarching themes are remarkably faithful to Homer’s epic cycle
The last Hollywood adaptation of The Odyssey was released in the year 2000, and is among the best movies the Coen Brothers have ever made. While O Brother, Where Art Thou? has very little to do with Greek myths, on the face of it, its narrative, characterizations, and overarching themes are remarkably faithful to Homer’s epic cycle. Perhaps Nolan will adopt a similarly left-field approach, providing Damon with the scope to interpret his legendary character in a whole new context, without having to do his best Charlton Heston impression.
What Is Actually Going On With Matt Damon’s Bourne 6
Will It Really Happen?
Damon’s Jason Bourne, on the other hand, leaves very little room for new interpretations on the big screen. In fact, studio executives might be starting to reach the same conclusion, as the future of Bourne 6 has been thrown into question since the actor confirmed he wanted to be a part of it.
It was last February that Damon told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, “I hope we can do it,” adding that director Edward Berger was working on an idea for the movie’s script. Yet Berger himself gave a further update in October last year, suggesting he was uncertain about whether he would even be making the film. The official line from Bourne franchise owners Universal Pictures that a sixth movie is still in development hasn’t changed. But Berger’s update wasn’t exactly promising for the project.
It could be that Bourne 6 remains in development hell for some time, as those behind the franchise try to avoid the risk of having the same problem with Jason Bourne as befell James Bond 20 years ago. That franchise was rebooted successfully with Daniel Craig’s berth as 007 in Casino Royale, but whether the same can happen with Bourne remains to be seen.
Matt Damon’s Collaborations With Christopher Nolan Have Been Fantastic So Far
The Actor Demonstrated His Versatility In Interstellar And Oppenheimer
Damon isn’t waiting around for what happens next with Jason Bourne, though. He’s throwing himself headlong into another Christopher Nolan movie. Given the track record of collaborations he has with the director so far, this next step in his career can only be a good thing for fans of both filmmakers.
When Damon played the cowardly villain Dr. Mann in Interstellar, he showed a side to his acting that we’d never seen before, particularly in his attempts to murder the movie’s hero Coop. In Oppenheimer, meanwhile, he brought a surprising amount of comic relief to the table given that he was playing the leader of the Manhattan Project, US Army commander Colonel Leslie Groves. Nolan appears to have recognised the versatility he can get out of Matt Damon as an actor, and now wants to bring another completely different but equally fantastic performance out of him once again.
