While we knew Matt Damon wouldn’t be returning for the next movie in the Bourne franchise (and certainly not taking the lead role in the film); The Bourne Legacy; which is due to be directed by Bourne screenwriter and Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy, it now appears as if Gilroy and Universal have settled on a leading man; offering the role to Jeremy Renner.
After earning successive Oscar nominations the past couple of years (for his work in The Hurt locker and The Town) Renner is expected to accept the role fairly soon; and begin working on the film that only borrows the title from the Robert Ludlum book, but heads in a different direction; and star as a covert agent cut from a secret program more dangerous than the one that created Jason Bourne.
Renner is now also signed on to appear in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (as a possible successor to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt), will shortly be making a cameo as superhero Hawkeye in Thor, before appearing in The Avengers, and entering production on The Bourne Legacy this September, ahead of an August 3rd release date in the US, and an August 17th UK release.
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Deadline.
