Jeremy Renner will be back in theaters as Aaron Cross in the next edition of Universal’s Bourne franchise, which now has a release date: August 14, 2015, two weeks after the release of the Marvel/Edgar Wright superhero flick Ant-Man. Renner’s first Bourne film, The Bourne Legacy, saw Tony Gilroy slide into the director’s chair after star Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass departed the series following three (in Damon’s case; two for Greengrass) highly successful films. Gilroy had written the screenplay for all of those movies.
Legacy saw a very middling critical reception and was a box office bomb, so the continuation of the series likely hinges on this next, currently untitled entry. Perhaps hoping to inject a fresh energy, Universal has removed the last touches of the original Bourne crew. Gilroy is gone from this newest film, directing duties handed over to Justin Lin and writing duties going to Anthony Peckham. Lin is largely credited for reinvigorating the Fast & Furious franchise, and directed the all of the most recent films in the series (although he is not directing Fast & Furious 7). Peckham has credits on the Robert Downey, Jr./Jude Law iteration of Sherlock Holmes as well as rugby drama Invictus, another move that makes a certain amount of sense given the Bourne series hallmarks are a mix of hard-hitting action, character drama, and a main character usually thinking five steps ahead of everyone else.
Production on the new movie figures to start soon (though there’s been no official announcement of a date), perhaps following Renner’s commitment to another summer 2015 release, Avengers: Age of Ultron, where he will reprise his role as Hawkeye.
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