Jeremy Renner is having a hell of a year. Screenwriter Sheldon Turner ain’t doing too badly either, even if Jason Reitman did seem to hog all the credit for the “Up In The Air” script.
What do they have in common? Well, Renner might be joining the Oscar-nominated screenwriter’s directorial debut.
Titled “By Virtue Fall,” the drama was to star Eric Bana and Colin Farrell, charting a professional and personal relationship between two characters that evolves from friendship to betrayal and retribution. But according to Deadline, Farrell has already dropped out of the project, and now “The Hurt Locker” star could take his place (see below).
And there’s a reason why, the backers of this film are Voltage Pictures, the production team behind “The Hurt Locker,” so they’re probably hoping Renner can do them a solid here. But the actor is very in-demand and is quickly being snapped up for project after project. He’s already signed up for “Mission: Impossible IV” opposite Tom Cruise (which might cause serious issues for “By Virtue Fall”), will play Hawkeye in “The Avengers” and may star alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” if the film can find funding in time before his schedule is completely booked. He has also reportedly booked the lead in “Hansel & Gretel” with original ‘Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ star Noomi Rapace.
You know, doing the simple logistical math, it sounds like to us that Renner’s name is being thrown in the mix to give it weight and keep it afloat, but it seems unlikely that he’ll be able to fit in both project (‘MI4’ and ‘Virtue’) if they both shoot late this year, which seems to be the plan so far.
Turner’s doing well too. He co-scribed Ben Affleck’s well-received heist film, “The Town” (our review momentarily) and Ryan Reynolds and Bradley Cooper just signed on to star in an untitled buddy cop film he wrote. That will take the sting out of Turner’s “X-Men Origin: Magneto” script ideas being cannibalized for “X-Men: First Class” (and it appears he won’t be getting credit).
