Dinesh Kamath's article on Hollywood movie 'The Bourne Legacy' that was published in Newsband

The Bourne Legacy is an upcoming 2012 American action thriller and the fourth installment in the Bourne film series, which is based on Robert Ludlum's Jason Bourne novels. It is directed by Tony Gilroy, screenwriter of the first three films and is due to be released on August 8, 2012 in India.

The film is very loosely based on The Bourne Legacy, a later Bourne novel written by Eric Van Lustbader, but like the previous three films in the franchise, it has a completely different plot from the source material.

The movie has the following cast: * Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross/Kenneth Gibson, an agent of Operation Outcome which was described as "Treadstone, [but] without the inconsistency" * Rachel Weisz as Dr. Marta Shearling * Edward Norton as Eric Byer, the film's primary antagonist * Joan Allen, reprising her role as Deputy Director Pamela Landy * David Strathairn, reprising his role as Noah Vosen, the former director of Operation Blackbriar * Albert Finney, reprising his role as Dr. Albert Hirsch, the doctor responsible for the creation of Treadstone * Scott Glenn, reprising his role as Ezra Kramer, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency * Oscar Isaac as Number Three * Donna Murphy as Dita * Stacy Keach as Mark Turso * Zeljko Ivanek as Dr. Donald Foite * Corey Stoll as Vendel * David Asmar as Evan Pines * John Arcilla as The Security Guard * Lou Veloso as The Fisher Man * Matt Damon as Jason Bourne/David Webb (photographs only)

It's been five years since Matt Damon starred in The Bourne Ultimatum. Since then, a lot has changed. Actually, everything's changed. After Damon and director Paul Greengrass decided to take a breather from the series, Universal was left with the thorny problem of how to keep its marquee franchise alive without its biggest marquee names. The solution: Create a new on-the-run CIA agent whose parallel story picks up where 2007's Ultimatum left off.

Enter Jeremy Renner (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) as Aaron Cross, another covert government-trained assassin. The idea was to stretch the horizon of the whole franchise and leave open the opportunity for Matt to come back when he wanted. With Renner playing an entirely new character, Universal gets the Bourne brand at the box office without the fan mutiny that might have come from casting another actor in Damon's role. Needless to say, the high-profile gig is another big step toward the A list for Renner, who also plays Hawkeye in May's The Avengers. Not that he wouldn't share the spotlight – in fact, he told Matt the he would love to do the next one.'' We've got the title: Bourne and Bourne Again.

Several scenes were shot in the Philippines, mostly in Manila like Binondo, San Andres, Intramuros, Navotas fish port and several locations in the metropolis. There were also some parts of the movie that were shot in Palawan, specifically in the renowned Puerto Princesa Underground River and El Nido. Several subway stations and nearby areas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea were used in some scenes.

A theatrical trailer for The Bourne Legacy was released on May 31, 2012 and was shown on screenings of Snow White and the Huntsman and showed substantially more action scenes than the first, and was met with mixed feedback. Collider.com commented that "there are some cool stunts in the trailer", but noted a lack of character development. GeekScholars Movie News gave the preview an average score of "B-" on an A+ to F- scale, saying that while the trailer proves that The Bourne Legacy "is showing signs of life as an actual action movie", they also questioned if the latest installment in the series would add anything new to the story, as the plot points revealed in the preview appeared to mimic the story lines of the previous films in the franchise.

The filmmakers behind The Bourne Legacy tried to reboot the franchise without Matt Damon's Jason Bourne character.

In three successful action-thriller movies, actor Matt Damon played Jason Bourne, a scientifically enhanced assassin who outmaneuvered the government's every effort to kill him. The creators of the billion-dollar trilogy are now attempting a risky survival gambit for the franchise itself, by putting out another Bourne movie in which neither Mr. Damon nor Jason Bourne makes an appearance.

The Bourne Legacy, opening next week, is instead anchored by actor Jeremy Renner. The rugged Oscar-nominated star of The Hurt Locker plays Aaron Cross, a product of a clandestine U.S. project that spawned a handful of genetically modified super-spies.

Against a Hollywood backdrop dominated by big-budget sequels, prequels and reboots, The Bourne Legacy is seeking an "expansion" of the franchise. The filmmakers have proved that the hallmarks of the original movies —ingenious spycraft, thudding hand-to-hand combat, a relative respect for the laws of reality and physics — can carry on without the star who made them famous.

Tony Gilroy, the co-writer and director of The Bourne Legacy, also wrote or co-wrote the first three films in the series.

The filmmakers didn't pull a James Bond-style replacement of Mr. Damon with Mr. Renner. A trailer for the movie shows the new hero in action, but it also includes mentions of Jason Bourne, and shows Mr. Damon's face. The intention was to differentiate the characters while emphasizing continuity.

The franchise has had a turbulent history. The first film, directed by Doug Liman, was a hit in 2002 despite a production plagued by infighting and delays. The director was replaced with Paul Greengrass, who clashed with Mr. Gilroy. After handing in a script for the third movie, 2007's The Bourne Ultimatum, Mr. Gilroy immediately moved on to his own directing project (Michael Clayton). Messrs. Damon and Greengrass completed the film but later walked away from the series, convinced there wasn't a credible way to continue a story that many thought had run its course; author Robert Ludlum wrote only three Bourne novels.

Aaron Cross is a pawn in a wider conspiracy, one that encompasses the black-ops program that produced Jason Bourne. That led to an idea for bridging the two heroes' stories.

Early scenes in the new Bourne Legacy overlap in time with the climax of the previous Bourne Ultimatum, which saw Jason Bourne upending New York City and his identity going public. Now, the chain reaction set off by Mr. Damon's character off-screen is what sends Mr. Renner's into crisis.

The studio expects to make more films with Mr. Renner. There's also a door open for Mr. Damon. In the world depicted in these films, Jason Bourne is still alive.

Thus The Bourne Legacy is a great film to watch. So do watch it when it gets released on 10 August 2012.