Doug Liman crashed wedding to secure rights for The Bourne Identity

18 December 2017

Doug Liman crashed a wedding when trying to secure to film rights to 'The Bourne Identity' franchise.

Doug Liman

The 52-year-old filmmaker directed the first instalment of the Matt Damon franchise back in 2002 and although the 'Bourne' franchise spawned four subsequent films, Liman didn't act as the director but instead as executive producer.

In a recent interview, Liman has spoken on the lengths he went to in order to secure the rights to the book - which was written by Robert Ludlum - which included crashing a wedding to try and speak to Terry Semel of Warner Bros. Studios.

Speaking to Den of Geek, Liman said: "I'd loved 'The Bourne Identity' since high school. After 'Swingers' was a pretty big hit, people were asking me what movie I want to make. I said 'The Bourne Identity'. And Hollywood said, no, what kind of small comedy do you want to make? I really wanted to make 'The Bourne Identity' and Hollywood was not ready to give me the opportunity. I never stopped pursuing the chance to do the book myself. I crashed a wedding where Terry Semel of Warner Bros was because I thought Warner Bros had the rights. I was shameless in my pursuit of the rights, and I eventually found Ludlum's lawyer and he told me the rights were about to revert to Ludlum from Warner Bros."

Liman arranged to meet him in Glacier National Park after just becoming a pilot and buying himself an airplane.

After spending a weekend with the spy author, Liman won him over and eventually secured the rights to the now successful movie franchise.

Liman also recently spoke about how he was worried he was making a "poor man's spy movie" and didn't think it would be as successful as Tom Cruise's 'Mission: Impossible'.

He said: "I felt so insecure while I was making 'The Bourne Identity' that I was making a poor man's spy movie.

"There was someone of the set who had the 'Mission: Impossible' ring tone on his phone, and every time his phone rang it drove me nuts because I was afraid my movie was never going to be as good as 'Mission: Impossible'.

"It was never going to be as good as James Bond. So it was really surreal afterwards to go and see the next James Bond film, and be like, 'Oh, I did make a James Bond film, because now the James Bond film looks like 'The Bourne Identity'."