Bourne TV series in the works from the creator of Heroes
But Matt Damon isn't scheduled to reprise his role as the amnesiac super-assassin
The world of Jason Bourne is set to skilfully infiltrate its way onto the small screen with a prequel TV show based on the Matt Damon film franchise.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, American cable station USA Network has ordered a pilot of Treadstone, named after the covert operation in the five Bourne movies that uses a behaviour modification protocol to turn its agents into nearly unstoppable superhuman assassins. As you do.
Although Bourne himself isn’t confirmed to appear in the series (nor Jeremy Renner’s Aaron Cross from The Bourne Legacy), the show will focus on other Treadstone sleeper agents as they’re mysteriously "awakened" to resume their deadly missions.
Treadstone will be written and executive produced by Tim Kring, the man who brought us the Heroes TV series. Rahmin Bahrani (Fahrenheit 451) will direct the series, perhaps using the same shaky-handed camera techniques that Bourne film director Paul Greengrass made famous.
The original Bourne film, based on the spy books by Robert Ludlum, focused on amnesiac super-agent Jason Bourne as he struggled to recover his past memories. 2002’s The Bourne Identity was followed up by The Bourne Supremacy (2004) and The Bourne Ultimatum (2007). Renner briefly took over the lead in the franchise in The Bourne Legacy before Damon returned to the titular role in 2016’s Jason Bourne.
