WONDERCON, SAN FRANCISCO: Yesterday at WonderCon in San Francisco Relativity Media brought the core group involved with this coming fall’s “Immortals” for its first big push for the film following the poster reveal on Friday. On hand to discuss the film were director Tarsem Singh (“The Fall,” “The Cell“), producer Mark Canton (“300,” “Piranha 3D“), Henry Cavill (“Superman: Man of Steel”), Luke Evans (“The Three Musketeers,” “Clash of the Titans“), and Isabel Lucas (“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen“).
While Jeremy Renner has reportedly been offered the gig and Oscar Issac was apparently one of the director’s top choices, “Immortals” actor Luke Evans confirmed that he is very much in the running to star in “The Bourne Legacy” and has already met with writer/director Tony Gilroy to discuss the part, telling us, “I’ve met the director, he’s fantastic. The script that I’ve been given, I’ve not been allowed to read the whole script, no one’s allowed to read the whole script, but the script that I’ve been given is great. It’s so well done. It just rolls off the tongue. It’s just nice to be in good company, there’s four of us left.”
Deadline has reported that those remaining four contenders he refers to are Joel Edgerton (“Animal Kingdom”), Dominic Cooper (“The Devil’s Double”), Garett Hedlund (“Tron: Legacy”), and of course Evans.
So where does this leave Oscar Issac and Renner? That news broke on Friday night. We spoke with Evans on Saturday afternoon. Does the actor have old intelligence? Is his agent clued out or is the lead role not as wrapped up as it seems. It’s all rather intriguing, and one should note, even though only one actor can play the lead, surely there are lots of juicy roles for this continuation of the Operation Treadstone story. As noted previously on The Playlist, Gilroy has stated that “The Bourne Legacy” will pick up where “The Bourne Ultimatum” left off, but now with a focus on a new character within the Bourne world.
When asked about the challenges of filling in for an established franchise protagonist, Evans expressed admiration for Matt Damon’s work in the series before reiterating that were he to get the gig, it would be a whole new character to develop, saying, “It’s a big deal, it’s a fantastic role that’s been portrayed three times very very successfully. I love the ‘Bourne’ films and I love what Matt did in them. It’s just hard to push that out and think this is a new character; it’s not Jason Bourne.”
So is Evans and “the final four” still in the mix or is it Renner’s job to take if he wants it? (and as many have pointed out, does Renner want to be part of two spy franchises since he’s already part of “Mission Impossible 4“). Hopefully, an answer surfaces soon. — Story and reporting by Sean Gillane