After his critically acclaimed turn as Sgt. William James in Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” Jeremy Renner has found himself an interesting bunch of projects to potentially follow up with.
The actor first joined James McTeigue’s upcoming murder mystery centering on Edgar Allen Poe’s last days (described as “The Raven” meets “Se7en”) but has also been linked to roles in Peter Berg’s film adaptation of board game “Battleship” as well as a collaboration with auteur Paul Thomas Anderson and Phillip Seymour Hoffman on their untitled Scientology drama.
However, in a sidenote to Taylor Kitsch’s casting in “Battleship” today, Renner has reportedly passed on Anderson’s project with “scheduling conflicts preventing his involvement” — the same conflict also caused him to pull out of Berg’s film. With “Battleship” scheduled to shoot this summer, it’s not known what project is causing the issue though it could very well be McTeigue’s “The Raven.”
Update: The wording of this piece is strange and seems to have tripped up several people. Vulture and possibly us. The piece says that Renner passed on “Battleship” because he could not do both this and the PTA film, which suggests he took the “Scientology” film, but its not exactly clear in its intent either. So Renner could be in the PTA Film. Honestly, a lot of people have been confused by this report at first.
Renner’s exclusion from PTA’s film is disappointing but may ultimately make things easier. His link had stirred a little controversy as his potential role, Freddie, was written as a young, impressionable 20-something drifter in an early draft. Our original script review had actually proposed “There Will Be Blood” star Paul Dano for the role, who is 14 years younger than Renner. Of course, there’s also the possibility that the religious drama had undergone rewrites, after all, Renner had reportedly taken at least five meetings with Anderson.
Either way, we’re sure this is just the tip of the iceberg to the story with details surrounding what’s happening with Renner, “The Raven” and PTA’s religious drama likely to hit soon if both are in fact set for summer shoots.