Jeremy Renner has been offered the lead role in The Bourne Legacy, the latest instalment of the spy saga which made Matt Damon a worldwide superstar, reports Deadline.
The Bourne UltimatumProduction year: 2007Country: USACert (UK): 12ARuntime: 115 minsDirectors: Paul GreengrassCast: David Strathairn, Joan Allen, Julia Stiles, Matt Damon, Paddy ConsidineMore on this filmRenner – if he chooses to accept his mission – arrives at a funny old time for the Bourne series. With Damon leaving the franchise and his character reaching the end of a story arc in The Bourne Ultimatum, the Hurt Locker actor will play a new role. Reports suggest it will be another brainwashed operative on the run from those who trained him. There will be a new covert government programme to replace Treadstone, Bourne having brought that organisation to its knees at the denouement of the last film.
Another important change for the new movie is that Tony Gilroy, who wrote the first three films, is stepping up to the director's role this time around. Paul Greengrass, the British director who took charge for the two most recent films, decided not to return in November 2009. Damon soon made it clear that he would not return without the film-maker's involvement.
Renner's name had been high on the list of rumoured candidates for the lead role in The Bourne Legacy, and appears to have just edged out the Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who starred in grubby Melbourne-set gangster thriller Animal Kingdom. According to Deadline the twice Oscar-nominated actor won the part after eight weeks of screen testing by producers. Other contenders were An Education's Dominic Cooper, Tron: Legacy's Garrett Hedlund, Luke Evans, Taylor Kitsch and Renner's Hurt Locker co-star Anthony Mackie. The film is due out in cinemas on 3 August 2012.
