In November 2010, while writing the screenplay, Tony Gilroy journeyed around the world to visit the locations where his story for ‘The Bourne Legacy’ would be set, just as he did for the other Bourne films. From the Canadian Rockies to Southeast Asia, he tailored the action to the specific locales. He reflects: “The great ride for the past 12 years has been getting on a plane and taking these incredibly specific and unusual tours of places that no one else would ever see because you’re looking at them from a Bourne point of view.”

According to producer Patrick Crowley, who once again accompanied Gilroy on the tour, the series has been unique in the manner in which it showcases parts of the world rarely seen in cinema. He notes: “We were one of the very first big movies to shoot in Berlin, and there had only been a couple of contemporary Hollywood shows before us in Moscow.”

‘The Bourne Legacy’ would be no exception. Gilroy chose to broaden the story to a setting beyond Europe, where much of the previous three films had taken place. “Pat and I traveled all over Southeast Asia and scouted,” Gilroy continues. “And then I wrote into the specific, real locations. That’s how we’ve always done it. There isn’t an action sequence in any of these films that hasn’t been written into the place itself.”

As ‘The Bourne Legacy’ rockets from Washington, D.C. and Manhattan to Alaska and Southeast Asia, Gilroy retains the spirit of the previous Bourne films. “It wants to feel like the world we really live in,” the director says. “We go to exotic places, but we don’t glamorize them. It’s a realistic approach to action, and it will be familiar in all those ways.”

Producer Jeffrey M. Weiner appreciates the detail the writer/director gives to this story. He offers: “Some of the locations for this movie are not places people go to every day. The fact that it is real and gritty and that we are close and in-your-face gives a perspective that you don’t find in the guidebooks.”

Helping Gilroy to construct this world were key contributors to the film’s visual style: production designer Kevin Thompson, who crafted ‘Michael Clayton’ and ‘Duplicity’ with Gilroy, and cinematographer Robert Elswit, the Academy Award-winning DP for ‘There Will Be Blood’ whose previous work also includes ‘Michael Clayton’ and ‘Duplicity’, as well as ‘The Town’ and ‘Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol’, both with Jeremy Renner.

Discussing Thompson, Gilroy commends: “Kevin’s built up a very, very strong body of work, and we formed an essential collaboration over the course of Clayton and Duplicity, but I think Legacy is going to show a lot of people that there’s nothing he can’t tackle. Legacy was a huge design project that went from big-time stage work through location building and then into Manila and all of its challenges—all of that with the mandate of staying absolutely photo-real at all times. It was the highest degree of difficulty, and he crushed it.”

The director was just as pleased to join Elswit for another project. Gilroy says: “Working with Robert on these three films has been about the best collaboration I can imagine. He’s the remarkable combination of deep experience, imaginative freedom and sled-dog endurance. We’d been through the shit together so many times before this film started, and thank God, because I can’t imagine trying to do something this long and large with someone who wasn’t at your side in every way.”

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About the author

Claudia Sondergaard
Specialised in American foreign policy media discourse, I have a real passion for media and writing and feel comfortable in subjects such as human rights, politics, environment, social issues, movies, TV and books. Reporting from Denmark. Follow me @swirlgirlversus

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