Matt Damon's 'Bourne' to give

By Brandy McDonnell | Published: August 1, 2007 | Modified: August 1, 2007 at 7:57 am

Actor Matt Damon and producer Frank Marshall lent their Hollywood appeal to an Oklahoma City area charity Tuesday.

The pair appeared at a benefit premiere of their new movie "The Bourne Ultimatum” at Harkins Bricktown Cinemas 16. They walked the "red carpet,” which was actually dark purple, down the east hallway of the theater, while people stood on tiptoes to catch a glimpse or a snapshot.

Along the way, reporters asked Damon questions ranging from his advice to any secret assassins living in Oklahoma ("Turn yourself in.”) to the need for environmentally friendly movie sets. ("You hear actors huff and puff about global warming, but you'll go on a movie set and see like 8,000 Styrofoam cups laying around.”)

At least 1,000 people packed three theaters to see the film, which opens nationwide Friday. The event raised about $192,000 for The Children's Center, a nonprofit Bethany hospital that provides medical care, rehabilitative therapies and special education to children with medical and physical disabilities.

"That's great,” Damon said when he heard the amount in an interview at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art before the movie. "It just makes it pretty much a moral obligation of ours to come and to do it, you know. It's having such a real effect, and there's such a tangible thing when you start seeing programs and buildings and people's lives are changing because of this.”

"The Bourne Ultimatum” is the third spy thriller starring Damon, 36, as Jason Bourne, an amnesic assassin trying to uncover his true identity. In 2004, Damon and Marshall appeared at their first Oklahoma City benefit premiere with the series' second film, "The Bourne Supremacy.” That event raised about $100,000 for the nonprofit.

Marshall, who has produced such blockbusters as the "Indiana Jones” films, the "Back to the Future” trilogy and "The Sixth Sense,” also brought his film "Eight Below” to the city last year, raising another $150,000 for the center.

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