The ‘Bourne Legacy’ Fever in Manila

In the numerous Hollywood films that was shot in the Philippines, the Bourne Legacy will be the 43^rd which the 25% of the film is taking place on some parts of Manila particularly in the Navotas fish port, Marikina public market, Jones Bridge, Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard, Ayala Avenue and Pasay-Taft Rotonda and even on the scenic spots in El Nido, Palawan.

To give a short background, Bourne Legacy is a 2004 spy fiction thriller written by Eric Van Lustbader. It is the fourth novel in the Jason Bourne series created by Robert Ludlum and the first to be written by Lustbader. He has also written five more novels in the series, The Bourne Betrayal, The Bourne Sanction, The Bourne Deception, The Bourne Objective, and The Bourne Dominion.

It is an  action/thriller spy films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering fromextreme memory loss and had been a professor linguistics at Georgetown University of  which does not last for long and, when a silenced gunshot narrowly misses Webb's head, the Bourne Persona reawakens in him yet again.

The film was star-studded with  Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, Josh Hartnett, Superstar Rajnikanth, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Alex Pettyfer, Paul Dano, Taylor Kitsch, Kellan Lutz, Benjamin Walker, Oscar Isaac, Luke Evans, Michael Pitt, Chris Evans, Dominic Cooper and Joel Edgerton.

Bourne Legacy coming soon

Several local actors were also confirmed to be part of the movie. Among them are theater actors Lou Veloso, who will play a fisherman; Medeleine Nicholas as a hotel employee; and John Arcilla as a security guard.

 On May 28, 2011, screenwriter and director Tony Gilroy had chosen Manila as one of the locations for The Bourne Legacy. Gilroy said that 25% of the film will be shot in Manila. Other locations include Calgary, Seoul and New York City. In August 2011 it was announced that actor Scott Glenn would reprise his role in the film. Filming also took place on Long Island, New York. Edward Norton was among some of the cast which confirms the rumor of his appearance in the movie.

Manila will serve as the setting for the film’s climax or the last 20 to 25 minutes. In a previous interview, Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) chair Briccio Santos said Manila would be part of the story. “What I know is that Bourne’s group comes here in search of a rare medication and some forces try to stop them,” he explained.

This big-budget film has also about 400 members of foreign and local production team who made sure that everything is set for the shoot.

There are also 34 huge trucks with very expensive movie equipment were lined up in Leveriza Street in Manila. Some of the equipment was also stored at the San Andres Sports Complex.

To secure and manage the flow of traffic on the shooting area, Twenty five personnel from the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) were deployed in the area since 4 a.m.

Personnel from the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the film’s local producer, Philippine Film Studio Inc. (PFSI), took charge of crowd control.

By this opportunity, Malacanang expects that the filming of the Hollywood action movie “The Bourne Legacy” in the Philippines will promote tourism and create jobs for Filipinos.