There are no new ideas in Hollywood, hence a Bourne franchise reboot whose first trailer -- just released via Apple -- borrows somewhat heavily from the opening titles of Psycho. (At least they're both Universal films, right? Score one for synergy!) But that's immaterial here after a certain point, probably around the time when Stacy Keach is all WHO IS HE? or when a house blows up or simply when Jeremy Renner's Aaron Cross is revealed in all his rifle-toting, tree-hopping glory. Who can resist?
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According to the Phuket Gazette, Bourne Legacy star Jeremy Renner was maybe-sorta (okay not really) involved in an insane-sounding bar brawl this week in Thailand in which an associate was attacked and stabbed by a host of bar employees. Oh, I'm sorry: Bar employees wielding knives and a freaking homemade battle axe. But fear not! It seems Renner, most recently seen in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol and currently in Thailand shooting his Bourne flick, hightailed it out and escaped unscathed. Wish we could say the same about his reported acquaintance, one Vorasit Issara, who took injuries to his stomach and neck in the melee. [Phuket Gazette, ETonline]
It's time to do some shopping, kids. After a week of semi-reasonable Golden Globe nominations (!) and the tragic downfall of The Daldry, I'm throwing away wads of cash at the Glendale Americana and never looking back. Do you think they sell the exotic headgear Elizabeth Taylor wore in Raintree County? Maybe at Zara or something? I don't know. Let's review the week and run away somewhere.
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After earning back-to-back Academy Award nominations -- in 2010, for his breakout role in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker and in 2011, for his supporting part in Ben Affleck's Boston crime drama The Town -- Jeremy Renner decided to dive headfirst into the action genre with four consecutive big-budget action projects. The first, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which co-stars Renner as a mysteriously overqualified IMF agent assisting Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt on his latest globe-sweeping assignment, premieres this weekend in IMAX. The next three films, Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, The Avengers and The Bourne Legacy, will all hit theaters next year, making the California-raised actor the busiest action star of 2012.
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What does it take to revive a passion for one's work, years on, whether said vocation is saving the world or churning out sequels in a blockbuster franchise? How does one reclaim human contact in today's isolating, gadget-dependent world? These are questions IMF agent Ethan Hunt and his portrayer Tom Cruise face in Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, Cruise's fourth outing in the spy series, directed entertainingly enough by Pixar veteran Brad Bird. If the hoodied Cruise evokes a touch of Eminem-level moodiness in the posters, it's with good reason: Stopping a maniacal supervillain may be on the docket yet again, but this time around Ethan Hunt has gone emo.
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This Dec. 16, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol premieres in IMAX five days in advance of its general release. Why exactly? Probably to encourage fans of the Tom Cruise franchise to see the picture in the large format director Brad Bird intended when he shot thirty minutes-worth of the fourth Ethan Hunt film in IMAX. To convince journalists that the large format is indeed worth higher ticket prices, an advance release date and a little early buzz, Paramount screened about 20 minutes worth of wild action sequences at the Rave 18 theater in Los Angeles last week. Ahead, the stomach-flipping details (and very mild spoilers).
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"No, I have no idea about any of it. All I know is that it doesn't preclude Paul [Greengrass] and me from doing another one of ours," original Bourne series star Matt Damon teased recently when asked if he'd show up to pass the torch to Jeremy Renner in Tony Gilroy's 2012 sequel The Bourne Legacy. Cheeky as that answer is, Damon was quick to play nice anyhow. "He's got a whole other thing that they're doing and I wish them well," he added, "and Tony [Gilroy's] really smart. I'm sure they're going to be great." So, no hard feelings. Really. [MTV]
Rachel Weisz may be filling up her dance card with a role opposite Jeremy Renner in the Bourne spin-off The Bourne Legacy, which films this September. But she's also set to play Mila Kunis's mean older sister witch in Sam Raimi's Oz: The Great and Powerful. Here's to hoping it works out with her busy slate, which has her set to open at least six other films in the next two years. (That's a whole lotta Weisz, but who's complaining?) [Deadline]
Fox's Ice Age franchise is getting some new voices for its fourth installment, next summer's Ice Age: Continental Drift. Among them: A hip-hop star, an American Idol judge, two comedians, and your future Bourne, who will mingle with the beloved returning heroes of the previous three Ice Age films in the July 2012 sequel. What adventures await in the fourth installment of the popular animated series?
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