Well, well. While reports have been saying that the newest installment in the Bourne franchise would be shying away, it looks like the key figures of Operation Treadstone won’t all be relegated to the rearview.
Albert Finney, who played Dr. Albert Hirsch who spearheaded Operation Treadstone’s behavior modification program and Joan Allen who stepped in the role of Deputy Director Pamela Landy are now returning to “The Bourne Legacy” to reprise their respective roles in Tony Gilroy‘s film. It’s a helluva interesting twist to the casting, providing a link to the Matt Damon-led trilogy that we’re curious to see play out. If you recall, at the end of “The Bourne Ultimatum” the successor program, Operation Blackbriar had been closed pending a criminal investigation. Could Hirsch and Allen be rebooting it in secret? Or perhaps they’ve simply kickstarted a new program with similar intentions but it seems their plans to create super, lethal agents may still be in play.
The duo join an entirely new cast for the franchise sequel — yes, it takes place after the previous film, just focusing on an agent who is not Jason Bourne — with Jeremy Renner leading the way, Rachel Weisz and Oscar Isaac also on board and Edward Norton filling out the villain role. The film has also been written by Gilroy — who has had a hand in all the scripts for the series thus far — so it will be a world he’s innately familiar with. Filming will begin soon and an August 2012 release date has been pegged. [Variety]
