Buried in the depths of a NY Times article profiling newbie Oscar nominees are some rather interesting tibits about Jeremy Renner’s post-“The Hurt Locker” opportunities.
The actor is currently circling Peter Berg’s aliens-attack-boats adaptation of the board game (sigh) “Battleship.” But before you worry that Renner is going to blow one of his first post-Oscar gigs on a bloated franchise movie, he has also taken five meetings to star in another project that he can’t talk about. Both of those projects are set to shoot this summer so he will have to make up his mind soon, but before then he’s got another film ready to go.
The actor has confirmed he will be filming James McTeigue’s “The Raven,” with Ewan McGregor in talks to co-star. The project, announced late last summer, is “a fictional account of Edgar Allan Poe’s final five days as he joins a hunt for a serial killer inspired by his stories.” McTeigue told /Film, “It’s like the poem, ‘The Raven’, itself, crossed with ‘Se7en’. It should be pretty cool. The script is really good and everyone responds to it really well. I’m in the middle of casting.” We’re guessing that McGregor is being eyed for the role of Poe, with Renner playing a sidekick of some kind.
Oh yeah, and in between all that don’t think that Renner is just sitting around basking in his new Oscar glow. Renner and his business part Kristoffer Winters run a side business buying and renovating homes and property in Los Angeles. Their current gig? Restoring the former home of Preston Sturges. “I make more money doing that, which allows me the freedom to choose the projects I want to do. I’ll always act, but I’ll never be forced to do it because there are bills to pay.” Is there anything not to like about this guy?