Down goes Batman! Down goes Batman! It took the car-chasing, gun-shooting adventures of Aaron Cross to do it, but The Dark Knight Rises was finally knocked from its perch atop the box office this weekend. It had spent three weeks at number-one. But The Bourne Legacy – with Jeremy Renner taking franchise lead over Matt Damon – ended that reign by hauling in $40.3 million on Friday and Saturday.
The first trailer for the Tony Gilroy-helmed spy sequel The Bourne Legacy has arrived, and it’s got everything you want: Bone-crunching action, fire extinguisher guns, Rachel Weisz as a hot lady doctor, and Jeremy Renner banging around doing his sensitive-strong mooney-eyed thing (and leaping out of rivers half-naked) as secret agent Aaron Cross. Okay, those are all the things I want from The Bourne Legacy , but the trailer gives us one more essential bit: Explanation as to how and why Renner’s been retconned into Bourne lore at all. Renner’s turn at the Bourne wheel isn’t a conventional sequel or reboot but a universe-expanding parallel storyline that seems to take place simultaneous to the events of the previous Bournes, with Matt Damon ‘s face popping up here and there — via photograph, a la Natalie Portman in The Avengers , or Robin Harris in House Party 2 — as the fugitive spy who upturned the Treadstone apple cart and set the spy world a’scramblin way back in 2002’s The Bourne Identity . So Renner’s Aaron Cross — and the comely agency doctor (Weisz) who patches him up between missions, then goes on the run with him — are freed from the singular mission that Jason Bourne was on. They can flee for their own lives, together. He can use his medically-enhanced super soldier skills to leap from buildings into tight alleyways when she calls his name. So romantic! And, also importantly, Renner’s Cross already seems like a much different man-spy than Bourne was. Damon played the tortured amnesiac thing well, but Cross doesn’t seem to be flailing about in some existential crisis; he knows what he is. That confident self-possession is magnetic. HE JUST WANTS TO LIVE, DAMMIT! At least, that’s what I got from these two minutes and change of trailer footage. And let’s not forget what else the trailer promises: Oscar Isaac. Ed Norton. No more shaky-cam! Verdict: In, obviously. From Universal: The narrative architect behind the Bourne film series, Tony Gilroy, takes the helm in the next chapter of the hugely popular espionage franchise that has earned almost $1 billion at the global box office: The Bourne Legacy. The writer/director expands the Bourne universe created by Robert Ludlum with an original story that introduces us to a new hero (Jeremy Renner) whose life-or-death stakes have been triggered by the events of the first three films. For The Bourne Legacy, Renner joins fellow series newcomers Rachel Weisz, Edward Norton, Stacy Keach and Oscar Isaac, while franchise veterans Albert Finney, Joan Allen, David Strathairn and Scott Glenn reprise their roles. The Bourne Legacy is in theaters August 3.
We’ve already discussed how Taylor Lautner might not be a believable protagonist in an action film , especially one where Sigourney-effing-Weaver is relegated to a supporting role. Now we have to wonder if Abduction is believable as a film at all, since its new poster takes a page out of a very-effing-popular movie franchise from the past decade. Run like Tay-tay, and click through for comparison.
In a fascinating peek into the sausage factory that is the new Jason Bourne-less Bourne series, Vulture is reporting that Jeremy Renner’s recent casting as the new heir apparent to Jason Bourne came about not because of some great desire for Renner but as part of a grand compromise between director Tony Gilroy and Universal. It seems like Renner wasn’t so much the bowl of porridge that was just right, but the bowl of porridge that was least objectionable.
The rumored attachment of Matt Damon to a slated Bobby Kennedy biopic has gained momentum now that the Bourne Identity actor has confirmed he has been in talks for the film but has yet to see a screenplay according to Reuters. “I haven’t seen a script yet but I have been talking to [director] Gary Ross about that for over a year and we are both really excited to do it.” Ross directed Pleasantville and Seabiscuit . The Kennedy movie will be based on a biography by Evan Thomas titled His Life. Kennedy was shot in 1968 while on the presidential campaign trail in Los Angeles.
In the elite all-guy fraternity of big time directors it’s a rare thing for one of their own to speak out against the excesses of the brotherhood. But notoriously difficult auteur Doug Liman seems to have forgotten his loyalties. In an entry in a blog devoted to chronicling the development of his new film that apparently involves the moon , the Bourne Identity helmer let slip that that old “process” thing that has been used by generations of Hollywood enablers to excuse all sorts of psychotic behavior might just be, you know, creativity aside, a bunch of excuses used by megalomaniac directors and actors excuses to get away with shoving their hands down the crew’s pants
Network sources confirm to us exclusively that Franka Potente (Run, Lola, Run; The Bourne Identity) is set to guest star on House this season. But where does she fit into the…
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