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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.
Renner (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.

Jeremy Renner.

As Matt Damon bowed out of the fourth installment of the Bourne franchise, Oscar winner Jeremy Renner (‘The Hurt Locker’) was offered the lead role.
In the next film of the series, titled ‘The Bourne Legacy’, Renner will not replace Damon as the character Jason Bourne – reported TheWrap.
Damon (who starred in The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum – based on the late Robert Ludlum’s best-selling novels) could return in the future.
Renner’s character is a government operative from an agency that pursued Bourne who has retired though is still part of the story. The writer/director for the franchise, Tony Gilroy, adapted the screenplay from the novel by author Eric Van Lustbader, based on the Ludlum mythos.
Gilroy also wrote thrillers: ‘Michael Clayton’ starring George Clooney and ‘Duplicity’ with Clive Owen and Julia Roberts.
Renner won the role over speculation that actors from Jake Gyllenhaal to Toby Maguire were being considered.
Last seen in Ben Affleck’s ‘The Town’, Renner will next be seen in ‘Thor’ as Hawkeye, who will also appear in Marvel’s superhero cavalcade ‘The Avengers’, to be released in 2012.

Modesto native Jeremy Renner has been offered the lead in the new Bourne movie.
The two-time Oscar nominee would take over the franchise from Matt Damon, who starred in previous three blockbusters as covert government spy Jason Bourne.
The fourth film, ‘The Bourne Legacy,’ will have Renner playing a different operative involved in the same government program as Bourne.
Damon had said that he would not return as Bourne unless its previous director, Paul Greengrass, returned.
Universal studios went with the screenwriter of the first three Bourne films, Tony Gilroy, instead. Gilroy, who directed ‘Michael Clayton,’ will also write the fourth film.
Renner is expected to accept the offer, even though his work schedule has been packed of late. He currently is filming ‘Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters’ in Germany.
After that, he will begin work on the big-budget superhero ensemble ‘The Avengers.’ He already has completed production on the ‘Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol’ with Tom Cruise, which will come out in December.