Jeremy Renner offered the lead in The Bourne Legacy?

This got lost in the shuffle over the weekend (or it may have been dismissed as an April Fool’s gag), but the word coming in from the boys at Latino Review is that Universal wants badass Jeremy Renner to beat people senseless as the lead in Tony Gilroy’s THE BOURNE LEGACY.

Apparently, Universal actually rejected Gilroy’s own personal choice to play Not Jason Bourne – Oscar Issac (DRIVE, SUCKER PUNCH) – before officially putting out an offer to Renner. It hasn’t yet been made clear why Issac wasn’t approved, though it’s likely because he isn’t a big enough name to carry the film. Renner, on the other hand, has been slowly and surely exploding since the success of THE HURT LOCKER, and will continue riding that for a very long time. Kind of a no-brainer.

The new film, to be directed and written by Gilroy (who penned the previous BOURNE films), will be using ‘The Bourne Legacy’ title of Robert Ludlum’s original book, but not the story.

“Gilroy has also made it very clear that the new film is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel, and that no one’s replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter and that this film is a stand-alone project.”