Because he clearly doesn’t already have enough on his plate, Jeremy Renner seems intent on keeping the work flowing by setting up Slingshot, a rally racing sports drama at Paramount that he’ll star in and produce.
Slingshot will be based on the true story of Bill Caswell, who ditched a lucrative job as a finance banker, bought a $500 BMW car from Craigslist, souped it up for rally competition and went up against professional teams in the World Rally Championships in Mexico in 1991. Given the enormous challenges ahead of him, he won great acclaim by placing third in the final race.
Don Handfield, Renner’s partner in his new production company, has written the script, which doesn’t yet have a director attached. It’s the second project announced by the pair, who already have a Renner-headed Steve McQueen biopic in development with James Gray writing the screenplay.
You’ve got to give the man some credit for striking while the iron of his career is white hot. Renner’s got Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol headed for release this year, has just shot Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, is moving on to **The Avengers **and is lined up to star in The Bourne Legacy, among other things. This marks another move to control his destiny a little after all those blockbusters.