On any other news day, this would have been top story, but a certain superhero decision beat it out: Tony Gilroy, long associated with the Bourne franchise as a writer, has been slotted in to direct the fourth movie, The Bourne Legacy, for Universal.

The latest entry has been through a somewhat convoluted development cycle with different scripts existing at different times, a roundabout of rumours as to whether Paul Greengrass would return to the director’s chair and big question marks over Jason Bourne himself, Matt Damon, who told this very site that he’d only consider it if the story was right and it treated the character properly.

That’ll be Gilroy’s job entirely, since he was hired to write the latest draft of the script in June and now has the megaphone for the movie, which hopefully means he’ll be happier with the result (he’s historically had problems with the other films).

And while finding an actual director means there’s finally some forward momentum, the schedule for the thing actually starting shooting is still somewhat up in the air, though we bet Universal would dearly love to have it ready for 2012, which was the original plan.

Legacy gets it title from one of the Bourne books penned by Eric Van Lustbader since creator Robert Ludlum’s death, though if it keeps to the tradition of the film series so far, it’ll likely have little to do with the novel’s actual plot.

Frank Marshall is once again aboard to produce, and we’ll be waiting to hear whether Damon will return. The pic will go ahead with a brand new Bourne, or the storyline will find some way to have a new agent enter the frame...