Matt Damon: Bourne Script Was Crap

Feud alert?
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 13, 2011 10:42 AM CST
Matt Damon: Bourne Script Was Crap
Actor Matt Damon attends the premiere of "We Bought A Zoo" at the Ziegfeld Theatre on Monday, Dec. 12, 2011 in New York.   (AP Photo/Evan Agostini)

Matt Damon seems so nice, and yet the beloved actor finds himself smack dab in the middle of a possible (and relatively polite) Hollywood feud. And Damon himself started it, when he discussed his three Bourne films with GQ. The writer, Tony Gilroy, was given a deal for the third film requiring just one draft—and the result was not impressive. "It's really the studio’s fault for putting themselves in that position," Damon says. "I don't blame Tony for taking a boatload of money and handing in what he handed in. It’s just that it was unreadable."

"This is a career-ender. I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for that dude," Damon continues. "It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left." The script ultimately required frantic re-writes by other writers. But Damon quickly went back into nice-guy mode, contacting the GQ writer to apologize: "If I didn't respect him and appreciate his talent, then I really wouldn't have cared," he said of Gilroy. "My feelings were hurt. That's all. And that's exactly why I shouldn’t have said anything. This is between me and him. So saying anything publicly is f***ing stupid and unprofessional and just kind of douchey of me." Click for the full profile. (More The Bourne Ultimatum stories.)

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