The Bourne Ultimatum star Matt Damon, the anarchic manner in which his signature film series
takes shape is an exception to the normal rules of production, and not
necessarily a technique to be emulated. “You know, it’s not an
advisable way to make a movie,” Damon confesses at a recent press
conference. “You couldn’t teach that in film school and send people out there. But it works for Paul, and there’s something
about the chaos and the alchemy of [producer] Frank Marshall and Paul Greengrass. But it should come with a stamp. It’s not an advisable way
to work if you want to live a long life.”

For returning director Greengrass, who secured an Oscar nomination for helming United 93 between making The Bourne Supremacy
and this film, the methods behind this sort of madness are rooted in
the material, as well as his penchant for shooting in handheld fashion,
frequently on location. “I think that in my films, and I’m not [saying]
across the board here, but it’s certainly true of The Bourne Ultimatum,” Greengrass says,
“you’re trying to bring together two forces that essentially are going
in opposite directions. And those two forces are structure, order,
planning, story — all the things you can lay down in advance
logistically, narratively, whatever it is. Then you’ve got the forces
of freedom, improvisation, ‘the moment,’ the happy accident — the
unstructured bits of filmmaking. …I think what I try to do all the time is bring those two [influences]
into the closest possible proximity, and where the two meet, that’s
where a Bourne movie should be,” he enthuses. “It means that they’re fresh, you know? A Bourne movie is not an airline meal, it’s made on the run.” For the full interview/feature, from FilmStew, click here.