Jeremy Renner To Begin a New Legacy

While it’s not officially a reboot, Universal Pictures has offered Jeremy Renner the lead role in the upcoming Bourne Legacy flick. Bourne series writer Tony Gilroy will be directing and while his credits are few – ‘Michael Clayton’ being his most notable, the series is moving ahead without star Matt Damon.

While this sounds like a travesty, the studios and director Gilroy have stated this will be a concurrent story taking place in the same universe as Jason Bourne’s dilemma. It will also allow Matt Damon to return at some point, but he’ll only do so when original director Paul Greengrass decides to return. The filmmaker recently shelved his Memphis project after the plug was pulled by Universal due to pressure from the Martin Luther King estate. He’s working on a few other projects in the mean time so it’ll will be a few years before Matt Damon returns,  and the studio is said to be under pressure from the Ludlum estate to produce more Bourne flicks.

Jeremy Renner is currently the Go-To Guy after landing a key part in the new ‘Mission Impossible’ flick alongside Tom Cruise with an eye on taking over the lead, and has garnered 2 Oscar nominations in recent years for his work in ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘The Town’. Renner will play an operative from a similar covert government program that’s equally dangerous as the Treadstone brainwashing program that formed the basis for the Bourne storylines.

While admittedly the thought of someone other than Damon in the lead seemed painful, Renner is a fine choice and his screen presence is undeniable and while he’s not as young as Damon was, perhaps this is the key to the new spin.

The studio is also recruiting other big name talent to ensure the film is a hit with Rachel Weisz currently in talks to star opposite Renner.  At this stage there’s no word on her character and some weeks she was  also in talks to play one of the witch sister’s in Sam Raimi‘s upcoming prequel flick, ‘ Oz: The Great And Powerful’.

The Bourne Legacy starts shooting in September, and is slated for release August 3rd, 2012.

via: Deadline