Exclusive Report: ‘The Instigators’ Director Doug Liman on His “Anti-Ocean’s” Matt Damon Reunion and Two Tom Cruise Projects…

It’s fair to assume that Doug Liman and Matt Damon had already reunited after the substantial success of their 2002 franchise starter, The Bourne Identity, but Apple TV+’s heist comedy, The Instigators, is somehow their first go-round in two-plus decades.

The director and star had already made names for themselves prior to The Bourne Identity, but their adaptation of Robert Ludlum’s spy novel took their careers to a whole new level. And, from the moment they started shooting Bourne in October 2000, the duo had to overcome a bevy of challenges until they finally concluded their last-minute reshoots in 2002. This trial by fire forged a lifelong bond between the two, making their lack of a timely reunion all the more surprising.

“That was really a crucible that bonded us, and it was a seminal movie for Matt and for me. So he became like family after that, but I don’t know how serious we ever got on any one project until The Instigators,” Liman tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I always loved Matt and the feeling seemed to be mutual, but it’s weird because you’re like, ‘Well, how did 20 years go by if you guys both wanted to work with each other again?’”

Damon, on behalf of his and Ben Affleck’s production company Artists Equity, eventually brought The Instigators script to Liman. It had been written and rewritten by Chuck MacLean, Casey Affleck and even Ben Affleck, but as soon as Liman read it, he recognized right away that it was a chance to subvert another heist franchise that counts Damon and Casey Affleck among its ensemble cast. So, instead of telling a glamorous story about expert thieves à la Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean‘s trilogy, The Instigators is more of a blue-collar heist film featuring ineffectual thieves and power brokers.

“I don’t think there was ever a moment where someone fully stepped back to a 30,000-foot view of it until I read it. I was like, ‘This is The Bad News Bears of heist movies. This is the anti-Ocean’s,’” Liman says.

It’s now been ten years since Liman, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt brought the critically acclaimed sci-fi actioner Edge of Tomorrow to the big screen. The movie grossed nearly $400 million at the time of release, and while its box office sum was considered to be underwhelming at the time, the film’s stature has grown considerably in the following years. Talk of a sequel has never gone away, and plenty of ideas have been exchanged, but there seems to be some momentum now thanks to Cruise’s recent production deal with Warners.

In 2020, Liman and Cruise also started development on a movie that would be filmed on the International Space Station, allowing for Cruise to be the first civilian to spacewalk. The collaboration with NASA and SpaceX has moved along at a snail’s pace, but Liman insists that the project is still alive.

“It is something we still talk about, for sure,” Liman says. “There’s a reason we haven’t gone to space yet, and when we finally do and the movie comes out, I know I’ll look back at it and be like, ‘Thank God it didn’t happen earlier.’”

Below, during a recent conversation with THR, Liman also discusses the major difference between Damon of the early 2000s and Damon of the 2020s, before explaining how Damon and Ben Affleck’s production company, Artists Equity, creates a more equitable environment on set.