Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Renner, who received an Oscar nomination for the Ben Affleck-directed heist film The Town, is back in bank robbery mode. Renner is attached to star in King of Heists, an adaptation of the J. North Conway nonfiction book from Lion Press about one of the greatest bank robberies in American history. He’ll play George Leslie, who came to New York appearing to be a mannered gent, but secretly put together a crew and masterminded a heist of nearly $3 million in cash and securities from the Manhattan Savings Institution in 1878. Renner and his The Combine partner Don Handfield will produce with Black Bear Pictures’ Teddy Schwarzman. Black Bear Pictures optioned the book and plans to finance development and production.

Will Staples will write the script. Staples most recently sold the science fiction pitch Myth to Fox with Sam Worthington attached and Lorenzo di Bonaventura and James Cameron producing. Staples, who until recently wrote with partner Sean O’Keefe, is teamed with him on an adaptation of the Lorenzo Carcaterra novel Apaches for Jerry Bruckheimer, the pitch World’s Most Wanted at Universal and Kings of the Trail at Walden Media with Gavin Hood attached to direct. Black Bear Pictures is in production on the untitled Ramin Bahrani-directed pic that stars Zac Efron and Dennis Quaid, and begins filming A.C.O.D. with Adam Scott next spring.

Since following The Hurt Locker with The Town, Renner has been one of the busiest actors in town. He starred with Tom Cruise in the Brad Bird-directed Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, starred with Gemma Arterton in Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, and played the Marvel Comics character Hawkeye in the Joss Whedon-directed The Avengers. He is currently starring for Tony Gilroy in The Bourne Legacy for Universal Pictures. CAA and ICM will co-rep North American rights on King of Heists. Renner’s repped by CAA and Untitled, and Staples by ICM and Brian Lutz Management.