The unsung hero of the Jason Bourne franchise has always been Tony Gilroy. While Matt Damon has always garnered applause for his performances and Paul Greengrass and Doug Liman gathered praise for the look of the films, Gilroy's scripts have always been under-appreciated, despite being whip-smart and full of action. With Greengrass and Damon not returning to the franchise, however, and Universal continuing with the series, there's an incredible opportunity for Gilroy, and apparently he's taking it.

Deadline is reporting that, in addition to writing the script, Gilroy will be the the director of Bourne 4, tentatively titled The Bourne Legacy. Based on the first book in the series not written by Robert Ludlum, the project would be Gilroy's third directorial outing, the first being the George Clooney thriller Michael Clayton (for which he earned an Oscar nomination) and the second being the Clive Owen-Julia Roberts spy comedy Duplicity. While early timetables suggested that the film would come out in 2012, that date is currently up in the air.

While I would have a hard time seeing a Bourne movie with Matt Damon, Gilroy truly is the natural choice to take over the director's chair. Nobody else is as closely related to the material and he has proven that he has some skills behind the camera. And who knows? He's not Greengrass, but he may be the right name to bring Damon back.