Vincent Cassel will play a prominent villain in the next Jason Bourne movie, in which Matt Damon returns as the amnesiac spy-on-the-run, reports Variety.
Cassel, 48, makes a rare foray into Hollywood big-budget fare as an assassin tracking Bourne. The new, as-yet-untitled film will see Damon reunite with regular series director Paul Greengrass, who also co-writes the screenplay with Christopher Rouse after taking time out from the $1.2bn espionage saga. The actor’s most recent appearance as Bourne was in 2007’s The Bourne Ultimatum, following which Jeremy Renner played a different agent in the less successful The Bourne Legacy in 2012.
Storyline details for the new film are thin on the ground, but Greengrass hopes to begin shooting imminently for a 29 July 2016 release date. Julia Stiles is also set to return as Nicolette “Nicky” Parsons, previously a sympathetic employee of shadowy spy agency Treadstone, with Alicia Vikander and Tommy Lee Jones joining the cast in new roles.
Rouse, who as previously mentioned will co-write the script with Greengrass, won an Oscar for best film editing for his innovative work on The Bourne Ultimatum. A regular collaborator with Greengrass who also won praise for his work on 2006’s 9/11 drama United 93, his jump to screenwriting marks an unusual shift between disciplines.
Cassel is experiencing a busy period, with the Cannes 2015 Palme D’Or competition entries Tale of Tales and Mon Roi, cult leader drama Partisan and Carlos Diegues’ period drama The Great Mystical Circus all on his slate of upcoming films. The Frenchman last appeared in a big-budget Hollywood production in 2007’s Ocean’s Thirteen.
