"Audiences were clearly looking for something that featured action as well as a strong story," said Nikki Rocco, president, distribution, Universal Pictures. "So much of the product out there right now is high-concept and visual-effects driven. As we proved with the first Bourne film, moviegoers are eager for a summer blockbuster that has substance as well as style. This film delivers on many levels, as our exit polls clearly showed. Strong reviews and good word-of-mouth should continue to drive audiences to theaters to experience this exciting ride of a movie."
Also successful for the studio was Universal Studios Home Video's recently released "The Bourne Identity - Explosive Extended Edition DVD", which is off to a spectacular start. Consumers bought more than half of the initial shipment of the special edition disc within a week of its arrival on store shelves on July 13, making it the top-selling title of the week (ending July 18). "The Bourne Identity's" initial DVD/video release proved overwhelming successful as well and ended up as the overall top rental title for 2003. Released a year after the original blockbuster's first issue, the "Explosive Extended Edition" includes extensive new bonus material, including alternate opening and ending sequences and previously unavailable behind-the-scenes footage.
"The Bourne Supremacy" -- the second installment of best-selling author Robert Ludlum's series with Matt Damon returning as trained assassin Jason Bourne -- also stars Franka Potente, Brian Cox, Julia Stiles, Karl Urban, Gabriel Mann and Joan Allen. "The Bourne Supremacy" is produced by Frank Marshall, Patrick Crowley and Paul L. Sandberg and directed by Paul Greengrass from a screenplay by Tony Gilroy ("The Bourne Identity"), based on Ludlum's book of the same name.
"The Bourne Supremacy" re-enters the shadowy world of expert assassin Bourne (Damon), who continues to find himself plagued by splintered nightmares from his former life. The stakes are now even higher for the agent as he coolly maneuvers through the dangerous waters of international espionage -- replete with CIA plots, turncoat agents and ever-shifting covert alliances -- all the while hoping to find the truth behind his haunted memories and answers to his own fragmented past. Compelling use of exotic worldwide locations and the bold cinematic edge brought by vanguard director Paul Greengrass (writer/director of "Bloody Sunday") maintain the aggressive style and fresh, non-traditional perspective established in "The Bourne Identity." "The Bourne Supremacy" is the latest entry in a refreshingly new breed of that time-honored genre, the espionage thriller.
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY UNIVERSAL PICTURES
