Source | After nine years, Hollywood mega star Matt Damon is reprising his hit blockbuster role as the infamous memory-loss-stricken CIA assassin Jason Bourne in the franchise series’ upcoming film.

The upcoming “Jason Bourne” film marks the fourth installment of the popular Bourne series and is slated to hit local theaters on July 27. The movie comes nearly a decade after “The Bourne Ultimatum” and 14 years since the franchise’s first flick, “The Bourne Identity.”

Damon, along with his new costar, Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, were in Seoul to talk about the upcoming movie.

“It was very exciting for me to come back as this character, I love this character very much and it’s had a huge impact on my life and my career,” said Damon during a press conference at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul on Friday.

“It’s definitely more difficult to play Jason Bourne when you’re 45 years old than when you’re 29 years old. Because you still have to run as hard, you’re being pursued diligently … so that part was a challenge,” he continued.

“But to get together with a group of people and familiar friends, the same creative group and to make another movie together is really rare in our business, so the older I get the more I appreciate the chance to get to do something like that.”

“The big draw to me was the clear aspect that I was going to be a part of the Bourne franchise … it was kind of a pinch-me moment when I stepped on set for the first time,” said Vikander.

“This is a film where we are able to set some really interesting subjects with social and political elements and backgrounds, but above anything, it’s an entertaining movie,” she added.

Damon has once again teamed up with famed director Paul Greengrass who directed both “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Bourne Ultimatum.” The Hollywood star stated that had Greengrass not been the director for the upcoming new Bourne installment, he would have never agreed to reprise the role of Bourne.

“To be reunited with Paul Greengrass was really the main reason for making this movie for me,” Damon explained. “I always said that I wouldn’t do it without Paul, and I’m really glad that I laid down that ultimatum so many years ago. He’s just a brilliant filmmaker.”

“We made another movie in the intervening years that wasn’t a Jason Bourne movie, called ‘Green Zone,’ and I am constantly looking for things to make with Paul because I just love him and I love his whole style and his approach, and I think it leads to really good work,” he added.

The actor also went on to assure fans that the upcoming film will be more action-packed and thrilling than all its predecessors. In particular, Damon described a car chase down Las Vegas as one of the film’s highlights. It was a scene that forced the production crew to shut down a few city blocks every night at midnight for days.

“There is great action in this movie. There are some really great fight sequences that we worked really hard on … and also we have a car chase in this movie that is bigger than anything we’ve ever done,” says Damon.

“We filmed this incredible car chase in which we actually totaled 170 vehicles,” he said.

The new Bourne film also stars Tommy Lee Jones as Robert Dewey and Julia Stiles, who is reprising her role as Nicolette “Nicky” Parsons.

By Julie Jackson (juliejackson@heraldcorp.com)

This week’s Grazia France features a few pages on the Oscars’ behind the scenes – digital scans have been added to our gallery. Thanks Ana for sending them our way.

Alicia is featured on the cover of the February issue of the German magazine, Interview. Thanks to Anne, high-quality digital scans are now available in our gallery:

Alicia is featured on this month’s The Wrap. I just added high-quality digital scans which you will find in our gallery by clicking on the thumbnails below:

Thanks to Boby, new high-quality digital scans of Entertainment Weekly have been added to our gallery. Check them out by clicking on the thumbnails below:

Alicia is on the cover of this week’s French magazine, L’Express Styles, which features 4 pages on her career. Check high-quality digital scans in our gallery:

Alicia is featured on the cover of the January issue of Vogue US, photographed by David Sims. I’ve just added high-quality pictures of the photoshoot to our gallery, as well as the digital scan of her cover. Keep reading for her interview, and don’t forget to check out the full article at Vogue.com. The issue officially hits newsstands on December 22.

About her life as a ballerina: “I push myself hard,” she concedes. “I don’t like pain, exactly, but as a ballerina I lived in constant pain. At ballet school in Stockholm, I remember we had a locker where if someone had been to the doctor and gotten painkillers, we divided them among us. In a sense we were all addicted. After I quit dancing, for a while it felt strange not to be in pain. It was as if an old friend, not a good friend but a presence, always tagging along, had left me.”

About all her films happening at once: “To be quite honest, it’s nerve-racking, the way these films sort of piled up,” she says. “It’s a mixed feeling when everything you’ve ever wanted in making films is coming true, and yet you feel scared because it’s happening all at once. Suddenly you’re in rooms with people you’ve looked up to for years, the Judi Denches. You wonder if you’re good, if you have what it takes. You carry an anxiety around with you—I’ve met many actors now who will say this—and the lonely feeling that this could be your one chance.”

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I have just added a beautiful snapshot of Alicia, photographed by Pal Hansen for the Observer New Review (The Guardian) to the photo gallery. In her interview, Alicia opens up on her new-found fame, the awards season, feminism and her favourite actresses growing up. Check out the picture in our photo gallery, and continue reading as you will find part of her interview below.

“It’s a coincidence, really,” she says. “All these films that I shot at different times over three years simply all arrived together this year. Remember when Jessica Chastain was suddenly in so many films at once? I suppose it’s like that. I hope so, because she’s incredible.”

[About her apartment in North-London] “It took me two-and-a-half years of living here with just three bags, but it has just about started to feel like home.”

“Up until 18 months ago, I thought the term ‘awards season’ was a kind of joke,” she says. “I had never really reflected that a certain kind of serious film came out later in the year. I just thought fall seemed like a good time to go to the movies. It’s colder, after all.”

“This worldwide spread of recognition is insane,” she murmurs. “I was brought up in a small country. If you made a Swedish film that just got into a film festival somewhere, that was like the biggest thing you could wish for.”

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