Renner heads to Town

After years of turning in strong work, it looks like Jeremy Renner’s powerful performance in THE HURT LOCKER is getting him some deserved attention.

Renner is in talks to co-star in THE TOWN, a romantic crime thriller with Ben Affleck… who is not Renner’s love interest. An adaptation of Chuck Hogan’s novel “Prince of Thieves” (a superior title), the story brings Ben back home to Beantown as a professional thief who falls for the manager of a bank in the Boston ‘burbs.

Rebecca Hall (FROST/NIXON, VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA) plays the object of affection, and “Mad Men” star Jon Hamm is the Fed on the robbers’ trail. Renner, his schedule now free of “The Unusuals”, would play Affleck’s friend and criminal cohort (he already rode with Ben’s bro Casey in THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD).

The film is gearing up for production in my relative backyard, with Affleck also making his sophomore directing effort after his GONE BABY GONE mini-triumph.