Jeremy Renner considers joining Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Thomas Anderson

Even before his acclaimed work in THE HURT LOCKER got recognition at the Academy Awards, we’ve been wondering how Jeremy Renner would fill his future schedule. Hawkeye in THE AVENGERS? Captain of Peter Berg’s BATTLESHIP?

How about Paul Thomas Anderson’s THE MASTER, already featuring Philip Seymour Hoffman?

PTA’s 1950s-set drama features PSH as “a charismatic intellectual who hatches a faith based organization that begins to catch on in America”. If that sounds like a barely disguised jab at Scientology, well… yeah.

If Renner, who may be required to also use his middle name, comes aboard the $35 miilion now-indie project (as previously rumored at The Playlist), he would play a drifter who becomes the mentor’s right-hand man before ultimately questioning the whole thing. Maybe we’ll see him again at next year’s Oscars?

Well, the next place we’ll see Renner is with Ben Affleck in the Beantown crime drama THE TOWN.