Looks like Jeremy Renner is wasting no time capitalising on the heat his successful roles in The Hurt Locker and The Town have generated. Not only is he leaping aboard several franchises, but he’s also now set up a production company and is looking to develop a Steve McQueen biopic as its first project.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Renner has launched a company called The Combine and has hired We Own the Night writer/director James Gray to craft a script based on Marshall Terrill’s books about McQueen, Portrait of an American Rebel and The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon. They’ve even got a director in mind, with music video director Ivan Zacharias itching to step up for his first feature film.
Renner’s going to star as McQueen (not a bad choice by any means, even if we’re sure some people still would prefer Damian Lewis). And this one might actually have a chance at getting made, which would be a first for the recent crop of rumoured McQueen biopics. At least one other one is still out there trying to drum up interest, but the fact that Renner’s team has the rights to Terrill’s books means thatproducers Michael Cerenzie and Christine Peters have likely given up the struggle.
Renner will also have to find time in an increasingly busy schedule to squeeze the movie in – he’s at work on Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters right now before he heads to the set of T**he Avengers **to play Hawkeye. Then he’s considering an offer to take on Tony Gilroy’s The Bourne Legacy with Sheldon Turner’s By Virtue Fal****l looking to snag his services early next year. Anything else? Oh, yes – voice work in Ice Age: Continental Drift. No one could accuse the man of resting on his laurels…