Friday, February 13, 2009 1:00PM - By davidhall
If Robert Ludlum could reap royalties beyond the grave, he’d probably be the richest writer in the afterlife. One by one, Ludlum’s unadapted novels (of which there are 25 left) are making the glorious transfer to the big screen with some big names attached to them.
In a seeming response to MGM‘s Tuesday announcement that Tom Cruise has signed on for the author’s The Matarese Circle (and possibly a sequel), Universal, who owns the rights to the remainder of the ‘Ludlum library,’ is fast-tracking an adaptation of Ludlum’s 1982 Cold War-centric thriller, The Parsifal Mosaic.
Similar to The Bourne Identity series, Parsifal is about a U.S. espionage agent, Michael Havelock, who becomes tangled in a KGB-backed conspiracy that leads him to a tumultuous search for Parsifal, a shady character running a blackmail scheme that could lead to nuclear war among the U.S., China and the Soviets.
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Wednesday, February 11, 2009 10:01PM - By davidhall
The king of conspiracy rumors himself, Tom Cruise, is confirmed to partner with Denzel Washington in MGM‘s The Matarese Circle, a thriller in which the two stars play spies teaming up against a global conspiracy (Sorry folks, not referring to Scientology here, although that would be some truly ironic casting).
David Cronenberg directs this adaptation of the 1979 novel by Robert Ludlum‘s (who also wrote “The Bourne Identity” series) with a purported contemporary twist on the author’s original Cold War setting. Cruise and Washington are cast as two prideful spies who spend decades as archenemies trying to kill each other and ultimately team up against the Matarese, a conspiracy group behind global instability [Variety].
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Friday, October 17, 2008 2:40PM - By Mali Elfman
Another Bourne film is in the works! That’s right, Bond isn’t the only spy that gets to keep making film after film. Although for the time being Matt Damon will be the only actor to play the Bourne role. No matter what the budget, the story line, or the director, every Bourne film has been a hit. With all three films making as much money as they are, doesn’t seem like they’ll be stopping anytime soon. Check out the numbers:
- The Bourne Identity - Total Gross $214,034,224 | Production Budget $60,000,000
- The Bourne Supremacy – Total Gross $288,500,217 | Production Budget $75,000,000
- The Bourne Ultimatum – Total Gross $442,817,159 | Production Budget $110,000,000
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