2007 proved to be the year of the cinematic threequel, with the likes of Rush Hour, Shrek, Ocean’s and Spider-man all reaching their third instalments. What’s more, it was the year of the underwhelming threequel, with only The Bourne Ultimatum and, to a far lesser extent, Ocean’s Thirteen, emerging with any kind of credible critical notices. Furthermore, unique among the threequels of ’07, only Bourne would go on to make more money than its predecessors.

That said, given that fourth films in the Shrek and Spider-man movies have all but been confirmed (and in the case of Shrek, there’s going to be a fifth attempt at dead horse flogging as well), it’s unsurprising that both Pirates of the Caribbean and Bourne are set to be revisited again.

It’s being reported that a Pirates of the Caribbean 4 would bring Johnny Depp back as Captain Jack Sparrow, and that it could hit cinema screens by 2011. That, in spite of the fact that the last two Pirates films, er, weren’t very good.

Meanwhile, in spite of running out of Robert Ludlum books to, er, pretty much ignore (although Eric Van Lustbader has written a couple more that pick the story up), the Bourne juggernaut could also be heading for an episode four.

Rumours suggest that Paul Greengrass – the man who helmed both Ultimatum, and The Bourne Supremacy – is on the verge of signing the dotted line for another film. Matt Damon, when promoting The Bourne Ultimatum, said that he would return to the role if Paul Greengrass returned behind the camera.

There’s no word yet on when a fourth Bourne film would emerge, but we’d have a guess at 2010. That’s assuming it all goes ahead, which we suspect there’s quite a good chance of.