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UPDATE: Jeremy Renner’s ‘Kill The Messenger’ Acquired By Focus Features For WW Distribution On Journo Gary Webb Saga

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday February 5, 2013 @ 9:30am PSTTags: Big Deals Film, Focus Features, Jeremy Renner, Kill The Messenger
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE UPDATE, 9:30 AM: Just after Jeremy Renner and Homeland exec producer/director Michael Cuesta came aboard Kill The Messenger, the film has formalized a deal for Focus Features to take worldwide rights. Focus will distribute in the U.S., and Focus Features International’s Allison Thompson will sell foreign in Berlin this week. This development isn’t a shock, considering that Scott Stuber set it up years ago at his home studio Universal, and it is an excellent fit at Focus. The film is about journalist Gary Webb and how his mostly accurate investigative report on how the CIA helped introduce crack to California got the journalist smeared and fired. He eventually committed suicide.

EARLIER, JANUARY 31 PM: The movie packages are coming together on the eve of next week’s Berlin film market. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters star Jeremy Renner has been set to star in Kill The Messenger, a thriller that Michael Cuesta will direct that is based on the tragic tale of a journalist who committed suicide after being smeared by the CIA. The script was written by Peter Landesman. Cuesta seems perfect for this; he’s an exec producer and has directed numerous episodes of Homeland and has been integral in establishing the visual look of that show. He also helmed the pilots for Dexter and Elementary.

Scott Stuber, who set up this project eight years ago as producer at Universal, will be joined by Renner and Don Handfield, and it will be a co-production between Stuber’s Bluegrass and Renner’s The Combine. Naomi Despres is also producing. The film begins production in the summer. READ MORE »

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Hot Trailer: ‘Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters’ Red Band

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 4, 2013 @ 2:57pm PSTTags: Gemma Arterton, Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Jeremy Renner, Paramount Pictures

The latest trailer for Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters dropped today. Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star in this dark, new twist on the classic Grimm tale. The pic opens January 25 from Paramount via MGM.

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Salma Hayek, Jeremy Renner Named Spirit Awards Co-Chairs

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday January 4, 2013 @ 10:41am PSTTags: Jeremy Renner, Salma Hayek, Spirit Awards

Film Independent announced today that Salma Hayek and Jeremy Renner will serve as honorary co-chairs for the 2013 Spirit Awards. The honor is bestowed on those who exemplify outstanding artistic achievement and embody Film … Read More »

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AFM: Al Pacino, Jeremy Renner, Julianne Moore Star In Dan Fogelman-Helmed ‘Imagine’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday October 23, 2012 @ 10:58am PDTTags: AFM, Al Pacino, Dan Fogelman, Jeremy Renner, Julianne Moore
Mike Fleming

Al Pacino Imagine MovieBREAKING: In what will be one of the hot packages at the upcoming AFM, Inimitable Pictures and Mister Smith Entertainment are teaming for Imagine. Dan Fogelman will direct his script and Al Pacino, Jeremy Renner and Julianne Moore will star. Denise DiNovi, who teamed with Fogelman on Crazy, Stupid, Love, will produce alongside Jessie Nelson and Nimitt Mankad, and Shivani Rawat exec producing.

Jeremy Renner Imagine MovieThis is the script that Fogelman originally sold for $3 million to Warner Bros with Steve Carell attached. It will instead be funded independently by Inimitable Pictures’ Mankad and Rawat through a film fund backed by Manoj Bhargava, founder of the 5 Hour Energy drink. Principal photography will commence late April/early May 2013.

Julianne Moore Imagine MovieDavid Garrett’s Mister Smith Entertainment will oversee international licensing and distribution for the film, starting at AFM. WME Global, which made the deal with the agreement with Mister Smith, will handle the domestic deal.

Pacino will play an aging 1970s rock star who is still packing arenas and living a decadent life with a girlfriend way too young for him. On his 64th birthday, he discovers an undelivered letter written to his 19-year-old self from his hero John Lennon. He decides to straighten out, stop making a living off by “selling out” and playing old anthems, and rediscover the music he originally set out to make. He also tries to reconnect with the 40-year-old son he’s never known (Renner). He moves into a small New Jersey hotel and befriends the hotel’s manager (Moore). The rocker’s hope: that despite the rough journey, Lennon’s message that love is all that matters will ring true at the end. Read More »

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‘Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters’ Moves To January 25, 2013

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday October 11, 2012 @ 6:05pm PDTTags: Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters, Jeremy Renner

Paramount Pictures and MGM’s Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters has shifted to January 25, 2013 from January 11. The movie will also be released in 3D and IMAX. It’s directed by directed by Tommy Wirkola and stars Jeremy … Read More »

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Mike Fleming’s Q&A With ‘Bourne Legacy’ Helmer Tony Gilroy

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday August 6, 2012 @ 2:14pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Jeremy Renner, Matt Damon, The Bourne Legacy, Tony Gilroy
Mike Fleming

The Bourne Identity is the rare tent pole trilogy. It generated three films that set the high bar for the espionage genre, despite rampant creative clashes that go back to the first film, which was started by Doug Liman (who didn’t return). Key to the construction of Bourne’s complex mythology all along has been Tony Gilroy, who stripped away most of Robert Ludlum dense original book and boiled it down to an amnesiac assassin’s challenge to rediscover his identity and humanity. While that narrative arc propelled the film through three installments, Gilroy along the way stopped talking to director Paul Greengrass. And while Gilroy has screen credit on all three Bourne films, Matt Damon very uncharacteristically went out of his way to diss Gilroy’s script for The Bourne Ultimatum. At present, neither Greengrass nor Damon want anything more to do with Bourne.

This week, Gilroy returns as writer/director of the spinoff The Bourne Legacy. Focusing on an illicit CIA Treadstone offshoot that genetically enhances the killing skills of a small group of operatives, Gilroy introduces Jeremy Renner as new protagonist Aaron Cross. That character’s arc is woven into several plot lines from the last movie, something that expands Bourne’s universe to the point where another Bourne film could certainly be possible. In a wide ranging interview, Gilroy talks about that challenge, why the mid-budget thriller game that built his career is facing extinction, why screenwriters are so slighted, and how all Hollywood processes the Aurora, Colorado massacre, wondering if movies should be less violent.

DEADLINE: The Bourne Ultimatum ended with Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass bowing out, and then Damon disparaged your Bourne Ultimatum script. And here you’ve come back with a spinoff film that expands the universe and makes a Jason Bourne return more plausible. Given all the past acrimony, what drew you back?

GILROY: I didn’t feel that acrimony. I turned in a draft of Ultimatum and it got green lit, and then I went off and directed Michael Clayton. I was really out of it. But the last thing I ever thought I would do would come back and write one, much less ever direct it. It was just so not on my radar at all. When all that other stuff happened, I read about it, probably through you. Long after, the guys from the Ludlum estate came to New York and wanted to have a cup of coffee. My brother was working for them at the time; I didn’t want to be rude. It was pretty much a courtesy meeting. I went in and they expressed all their frustrations with how to go forward. It was like, what do they do? Where could they go? You can imagine all the wacky ideas that everybody had been banging around. Read More »

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Jeremy Renner, Bill Condon Eyeing WikiLeaks Film

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday July 23, 2012 @ 4:21pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Bill Condon, DreamWorks, Jeremy Renner, Julian Assange, Wikileaks
Mike Fleming

Here’s something a bit dishy for a summer afternoon. I’ve heard that Jeremy Renner, about to open in The Bourne Legacy, is looking hard at playing Julian Assange … Read More »

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TWC Acquiring U.S. On James Gray Pic; Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Renner Star

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday June 14, 2012 @ 6:34pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Harvey Weinstein, James Gray, Jeremy Renner, Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE:The Weinstein Company is near a deal to acquire U.S. rights to an untitled period drama that James Gray wrote and directed, with Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner starring. Gray has completed the film, and The Weinstein Company … Read More »

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Indian Paintbrush Makes First-Look Deal With Jeremy Renner’s The Combine

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 31, 2012 @ 12:02pm PDTTags: Big Deals Film, Don Handfield, Indian Paintbrush, Jeremy Renner, Steven Rales
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Steven Rales’ Indian Paintbrush has made a two-year first-look deal with Jeremy Renner and writer-director Don Handfield, partners in the upstart production company The Combine. The financier/producer has deals with its Moonrise Kingdom helmer Wes Anderson and also with Jason Reitman, who is about to start Labor Day for Indian Paintbrush. This marks its first overall deal with an actor-producer.

The deal comes at a time when Renner is soaring. After successive Oscar nominations for The Hurt Locker and The Town, he starred alongside Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible –Ghost Protocol and played Hawkeye in The Avengers. Renner next stars in The Bourne Legacy, which Universal releases in August. Despite his growing bankability, the focus of the deal is to utilize Renner as producer and not necessarily as an actor. Indian Paintbrush’s Rales and Mark Roybal met with Renner and his partner and were impressed by their strong business plan and creative aspirations. They’ve already fixed on the first project, but were keeping it under wraps for the moment. It is likely their sensibility will be closer to The Hurt Locker than The Avengers.

Related: Hot Trailer: ‘The Bourne Legacy’ With Jeremy Renner Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘The Bourne Legacy’ With Jeremy Renner

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Thursday May 31, 2012 @ 10:25am PDTTags: Jeremy Renner, Matt Damon, The Bourne Legacy, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

Universal Pictures has just released a new trailer for The Bourne Legacy, the Tony Gilroy-directed spinoff film that stars Jeremy Renner as a Treadstone assassin, same as Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne in the Robert Ludlum novels. The surprise in this trailer is how much Jason Bourne there … Read More »

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Judd Apatow, Charlize Theron, Michelle Pfeiffer Try To Jazz Up Finale: CinemaCon

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday April 26, 2012 @ 10:05pm PDTTags: Charlize Theron, Jennifer Garner, Jeremy Renner, Judd Apatow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sylvester Stallone
Pete Hammond

Perhaps it was just because they come at the end of a long week and the exhibitors who come from around the country to Las Vegas for NATO’s CinemaCon convention are either tired or jaded at this point, but tonight’s closing … Read More »

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Top Actors Lining Up For Villain Role In ‘The Counselor’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday February 24, 2012 @ 10:58am PSTTags: Cormac McCarthy, Javier Bardem, Jeremy Renner, Michael Fassbender, Ridley Scott, The Counselor
Mike Fleming

The hot role that actors are lining up for is the villain in The Counselor, the Ridley Scott-directed Cormac McCarthy-written thriller that will star Michael Fassbender. I’m hearing that The Bourne Legacy‘s Jeremy Renner and No Country For Old Men‘s Javier Bardem are among the actors circling. I’ve been hearing … Read More »

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Hot Trailer: ‘The Bourne Legacy’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 8, 2012 @ 10:06am PSTTags: Jeremy Renner, Matt Damon, Robert Ludlum, The Bourne Legacy, Tony Gilroy
Mike Fleming

Universal has just released its first trailer for The Bourne Legacy, the Tony Gilroy-directed spinoff of the studio’s blockbuster Bourne Identity series. This time, Jeremy Renner takes center stage as the protagonist. Coming off The Hurt Locker and Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol, Renner’s growing into action hero mode. Will the film … Read More »

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UPDATE: Paramount Says Jeremy Renner Never Told ‘Extra’ He’s Taking Over ‘Mission: Impossible’ From Tom Cruise

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Tuesday November 29, 2011 @ 4:48pm PSTTags: Jeremy Renner, Matt Damon, Mission: Impossible 4, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol, The Bourne Legacy, Tom Cruise

2ND UPDATE 8:30 PM: Extra has now revised its website. Here is the full account of how Jeremy Renner replied to the question about “the rumors his Mission: Impossible character might possibly take over … Read More »

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Universal And Captivate Target Next Robert Ludlum Thriller: ‘The Janson Directive’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday October 25, 2011 @ 5:10pm PDTTags: Ben Smith, Edward Norton, Jeffrey Weiner, Jeremy Renner, Jesse Wigutow, John Hlavin, Rachel Weisz, Robert Ludlum, Ron Howard, Simon Kinberg, The Bourne Legacy, Tony Gilroy, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: After getting the spinoff film The Bourne Legacy into production with Tony Gilroy directing his script and Jeremy Renner starring, Universal Pictures, Captivate Entertainment and Ludlum Entertainment are moving forward with another feature adaptation of a Robert Ludlum thriller novel. The studio has hired John Hlavin to script The Janson Directive, one of the last novels Ludlum wrote before he died in 2001. Ben Smith and Jeffrey Weiner are producing through Captivate, which has a first look Universal deal. The production company just signed with UTA.

Published a year after Ludlum’s death, The Janson Directive focuses on Paul Janson, an ex-Navy SEAL and former member of the covert government agency Consular Operations. In the book, he is haunted by memories of the Vietnam War and his mentor and commanding officer, whose sadistic side prompted him to turn Janson over to the enemy to be tortured. Janson escaped and provided the evidence of war crimes that caused his CO’s execution. Years later, Janson is a corporate security consultant who takes a job rescuing an important man, but when the job goes awry, Janson is targeted for a “beyond salvage” termination order. He has no choice but to follow the clues that lead him to a massive scandal. Read More »

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WME Signs British Actor Tom Hiddleston

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday October 24, 2011 @ 12:30pm PDTTags: Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Joss Whedon, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Tom Hiddleston, WME, Woody Allen
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: WME has just signed Tom Hiddleston, who reprises his Loki character from Thor in the upcoming Joss Whedon-directed The Avengers. Hiddleston, who was last repped in the U.S. by ICM, had a year in which he also starred in … Read More »

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Judge Dismisses ‘Hurt Locker’ Lawsuit

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday October 13, 2011 @ 12:41pm PDTTags: Jeremy Renner, Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker

U.S. District Court Judge Jacqueline Nguyen has dismissed a lawsuit against the filmmakers behind Oscar Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker that alleged they improperly used the likeness of an actual soldier, Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver. Sarver filed the suit before … Read More »

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Jeremy Renner Masterminds ‘King Of Heists’

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Tuesday September 20, 2011 @ 1:11pm PDTTags: Brad Bird, Don Handfield, Gavin Hood, Gemma Arterton, James Cameron, Jeremy Renner, Jerry Bruckheimer, Joss Whedon, Lorenzo Carcaterra, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, Sam Worthington, Sean O'Keefe, Tom Cruise, Tony Gilroy
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. Read More »

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Universal Pictures Chairman Adam Fogelson Re-Upped Through 2014

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday September 19, 2011 @ 12:37pm PDTTags: Aaron Johnson, Adam Fogelson, Akiva Goldsman, Alexander Skarsgard, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Brian Grazer, Carl Rinsch, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Daniel Espinosa, Denzel Washington, Don Winslow, Guillermo Del Toro, Hugh Jackman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Joseph Kosinski, Keanu Reeves, Kristen Stewart, Liam Neeson, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Bay, Mila Kunis, Oliver Stone, Peter Berg, Rihanna, Robert Schwentke, Ron Howard, Ron Meyer, Rupert Sanders, Russell Crowe, Seth MacFarlane, Shane Salerno, Stephen King, Steve Burke, Taylor Kitsch, Tom Cruise, Tom Hooper, Tony Gilroy, Universal Pictures
Mike Fleming

BREAKING: NBCUniversal’s new owners at Comcast have given a vote of confidence to the studio’s feature film operation. They’ve exercised an option on Universal Pictures’ Chairman Adam Fogelson and extended his contract through 2014. I’m told that Fogelson is, in turn, in the process of exercising the option of Donna Langley and she will continue as the studio’s co-chairman. They will also keep their executive team intact. Fogelson will continue to have full day-to-day operating responsibility for the Motion Picture Group, reporting to Universal Studios President and Chief Operating Officer Ron Meyer (whose contract was recently re-upped through 2015) and will now also report to NBCUniversal Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke.

While Universal has had its ups and downs, higher-ups are clearly convinced that Fogelson, Langley and their team are making progress. They’ve had recent hits –Bridesmaids, Hop! and Fast Five– but also had some recent misses that include The Dilemma, Change-Up and Cowboys & Aliens. In the latter case, the studio was on the hook for one-third of the film, and shared that third with Relativity Media. It has also been a year in which Fogelson and his team have made some painful decisions and let pricey productions go. That began with the Guillermo Del Toro-directed At the Mountains of Madness, which Universal developed for years and which was ready to go with Tom Cruise, until the studio made a late decision not to go forward because of the possibility the $150M film could carry an R-rating. Universal also dropped two projects that were in advanced  stages of development: The Dark Tower, the Akiva Goldsman-directed adaptation of the Stephen King novel series that was to be made into three feature films and two limited-run TV series, with the first film and TV segment directed by Ron Howard and produced by Brian Grazer and Goldsman; and Oiuja, the Hasbro board game that had McG directing and Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners producing with Hasbro. The moves were surprising because Howard and Grazer are cornerstone filmmakers for Universal; and Del Toro and Hasbro have overall deals there. Ouija is one of several Hasbro properties the studio dropped, the others being the Gore Verbinski-directed Clue, the Ridley Scott-directed Monopoly and Magic, The Gathering. These were part of a groundbreaking deal the studio made with the toymaker several years ago, but the studio and Hasbro have re-focused their attention solely on Battleship, Stretch Armstrong, and Candy Land. Read More »

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