14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, a replacement for Matt Damon in the upcoming “Jason Bourne” installment was announced: Jeremy Renner of “The Hurt Locker” and “The Town.” A new report is now suggesting that, while everybody’s thrilled with the choice, no one really wanted Renner from the get-go.
MovieFone says Renner was not the studio’s or the director’s first choice for the role, contrary to speculations in the media.
Because this will be a fourth film marketed as a “Jason Bourne” pic and given that Matt Damon will not be in it (and neither will the character Jason Bourne), director Tony Gilroy and movie studio Universal wanted to go in different directions, the e-zine says.
Renner was never a frontrunner, despite what reports in the media said at the time talks with other stars were being held.
“Gilroy, writer of all the ‘Bourne’ screenplays and director of the forthcoming ‘The Bourne Legacy,’ wanted to go with a little-known actor whose fame wouldn’t ‘pull focus’ away from the character, an assassin who experienced the same training as Jason Bourne,” MF writes.
His first choice was Joel Edgerton (“Animal Kingdom,” “King Arthur”), but he eventually dropped the idea because he believed Joel would not be able to carry off the part in such a huge franchise as “Bourne” is because audiences are not that familiar with him.
“The studio preferred big names like Shia LaBeouf and Colin Farrell but also considered up-and-comers Garrett Hedlund, 26, and Taylor Kitsch, 30, for the part,” MF adds.
LaBeouf would have only taken the part if he didn’t have to do a screen test (which Gilroy specifically asked for), while the other stars were already contractually bound elsewhere.
Waiting for their schedules to clear up was not an option either because the author of the “Bourne” books demanded a deadline from the studio, so Renner was the compromise.
Eventually, “both parties agree[d] that Renner, 40, had the acting chops and action-star swagger to deliver as the film’s lead,” MF says.