‘The Bourne Identity’ director Doug Liman doesn’t know how to process James Bond franchise copying his film’s style

The Bourne Identity director Doug Liman feels that Daniel Craig’s James Bond films have severely borrowed their style from the Matt Damon-led Bourne franchise.

Based on Robert Ludlum’s 1980 novel of the same name, ‘The Bourne Identity’ starred Matt Damon as Jason Bourne a spy with superior combat skills and intelligence. The first film saw Bourne attempting to recover his memories as he is ensnared in a global CIA conspiracy. The franchise has spawned five films, four of which starred Damon. Liman directed the first and executive produced the rest, with Paul Greengrass taking over the director’s seat for the second, third, and fifth films.

Liman is back with a new movie on HBO Max, ‘Locked Down’, which depicts life under lockdown and a heist at Harrods.In an interview with SlashFilms, the filmmaker opened about Bourne’s influence on recent Bond films.

“I always wanted to make a James Bond movie,” he said, “but they don’t hire American directors. By the way, you’ve made two little indie movies. You’re never going to direct James Bond. I went and made Bourne Identity, and then after The Bourne Identity came out, the next James Bond to come out was Casino Royale, which totally copied the tone of Bourne. I had a very surreal thing where I was sort of making Bourne because I really wanted to make Bond, and then Bond copied Bourne.”

“I didn’t quite know how to process that,” he added. “I still don’t know how to process that. I don’t know if I got what I wanted or didn’t get what I wanted. It’s beyond my computing power to know how to feel about that. It’s probably an unsatisfying answer. To say I’m annoyed or flattered would be easy, but I’m still confused about how should I feel this.”

Liman however is aware of the risks he took with The Bourne Identity. With the ending of his Bourne film, he went big by going small and defied Universal’s wishes. Bourne doesn’t fight off dozens after dozens of goons. Instead, only a handful.

“It’s still one of my favorite mementos from my career,” he concluded. “Universal told me the ending would be unsatisfying, and they wanted Jason Bourne to fight 200 people. I told the two executives to go eff themselves. Unfortunately, one of those executives now runs Netflix. I’m still proud of having sent that memo.”