Jeremy Renner has come a long way from his days in National Lampoon’s Senior Trip. The two-time Oscar nominee has become the go-to-guy for action franchises. According to Deadline, Renner has been hired to star in the Bourne spin-off, The Bourne Legacy. The film will be directed by Tony Gilroy, who wrote the screenplays for the original trilogy.
Renner faced tough competition from every actor in Hollywood between the ages of 20 and 40 for the film. But he came out victorious, and Universal has formerly offered him the leading role.
In The Bourne Legacy, Renner’s character will play a super-agent, who was created by a government program that’s much more dangerous than the one that hatched Jason Bourne. Universal Pictures auditioned a slew of actors for the role including Renner’s Hurt Lock co-star Anthony Mackie, Joel Edgerton, Dominic Cooper, Garrett Hedlund, and Taylor Kitsch. The film is expected to begin production in September.
Here’s the issue, will Renner collapse from exhaustion at some point? Over the past year, he’s been shooting the fourth installment of the Mission Impossible franchise where he’s expected to take over the lead from Tom Cruise. Next, he’s appearing as Hawkeye in Marvel’s The Avengers, which is supposed to begin filming in May, followed by The Bourne Legacy in September. We got tired just typing that!
After years of being in between jobs and working the indie circuit, it looks like Renner is soaking in all the blockbusters he can. It will be interesting to see if he can be the face of Mission Impossible and Bourne without a serious conflict. Besides that, he’ll have to deal with Bourne’s diehard fans, who only care for Matt Damon as the lead. What do you think of Renner taking over his spot? Will you go out and see the film?
