New Apple TV Plus film The Instigators reunites Matt Damon, Doug Liman two decades after The Bourne Identity

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New Apple TV Plus film The Instigators reunites Matt Damon, Doug Liman two decades after The Bourne Identity

Back in 2002, Matt Damon and director Doug Liman created something that altered the way action movies were made.

To this day, The Bourne Identity, and its Paul Greengrass-directed sequels, remain hugely influential, having launched the gritty realism and hand-held camera techniques now commonplace in the genre.

Damon was already a big movie star when he made The Bourne Identity, with prominent roles in Good Will Hunting, The Talented Mr Ripley and Ocean’s Eleven.

Liman came to the project with a more limited resume, but one stacked with cult films, such as Swingers and the 1999 ****** ******, Go.

The success of the Bourne franchise propelled both men to even greater heights in the years after its release.

For Damon, it was the evolution to true leading man status in a variety of movies across a range of genres, from Invictus and Elysium, to The Martian and We Bought A Zoo.

Liman had plenty of high-profile projects, too, directing Mr & Mrs Smith, Jumper and Edge of Tomorrow.

Now the duo have been reunited, two decades after The Bourne Identity’s release, by Apple Studios, and tasked with bringing a heist comedy, The Instigators, to the tech giant’s streaming platform.

“It probably looks like we had a lot of fun making it, and we did, it was pretty magical,” Liman tells The Sunday Times over a video call.

“Matt and I almost grew up together in the industry, basically, because Bourne Identity was such a significant turning point in Matt’s career and in my career.”

There’s a bit to unpack when looking back on that “turning point”, because the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the production of The Bourne Identity is the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Liman clashed with the studio over the tone of the film, a producer left just before ********* began, and the set has been described as chaotic, but not necessarily in a bad way.

“I’m so proud when I look back on Bourne Identity,” Liman says.

“Because Matt and I had no business — as young as we were, and as untested as we were — to sort of insist on making the movie we wanted to make, but we stayed true to ourselves.

“And, yeah, there was friction with the studio, that’s sort of legendary and has been written about, because it was ‘Who are these precocious, untested actor and untested director, that are challenging the studio and telling a story the way they wanted to tell it?’.

“But there were points on Bourne Identity where even I was like, ‘Maybe there’s a reason everyone does it this other way’, but Matt was like, ‘You promised me we weren’t going to do anything conventional’.”

After all these years, both men are thoroughly tried and tested in the industry, and could be forgiven for resting on their laurels occasionally, but that ******* to push each other to do things a little unconventionally was present on the set of The Instigators.

“What’s crazy all these years later is Matt’s this giant movie star, and obviously, I’ve had a ton of success, so there’s no one really pushing back anymore,” the director admits.

“But, at the end of the day, Matt and I are pushing each other, which was what we were doing on Bourne Identity, and it’s sort of like being back in film school, because you’re just a writer and an actor and a director, figuring out a movie.

“Matt and I both have this kind of rebellious spirit, and it’s probably what drew us to do Instigators, because . . . that rebellious nature is just intrinsic to making a heist film.”

The pair’s new film is littered with reunions, from Damon’s Downsizing co-star Hong Chau, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her role in The Whale, to the actor’s Ocean’s Eleven co-star Casey Affleck.

Affleck’s older brother Ben, who you may have heard of, serves with Damon as a producer on the project.

The Instigators casts Damon and Affleck as Rory and Cobby, reluctant co-conspirators in an attempt to rob the slush fund of Boston’s dodgy mayor (Ron Perlman).

When things predictably go sideways, the pair go on the run, taking Rory’s therapist (Chau) as a not completely unwilling ********.

With a starry supporting cast that includes Michael Stuhlbarg, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina and Toby Jones, Liman’s film is a Bostonian ****** ****** that stands as a light-hearted alternative to The Town.

With Affleck also getting a co-writing credit, the project represents another step in his attempt to escape the wilderness of cancellation, after his best actor win at the 2017 Academy Awards was mired in ******* harassment allegations.

Those claims dated back to alleged behaviour on the set of the 2010 film I’m Still Here, and resulted in Affleck settling civil lawsuits against him for millions of dollars.

He made a notable return to the big screen last year in Oppenheimer in a supporting role, but The Instigators sees the actor in a role closer to the likeable larrikin he played in the Ocean’s movies.

Off-screen issues aside, Liman believes The Instigators will remind people of Affleck’s talent.

“It’s such an amazing showcase for Casey Affleck,” the director says.

“I just can’t imagine anyone watching the movie and . . . and not falling in love with him.”

The Instigators premiered globally on Apple TV Plus on Friday August 2.

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