Jeremy Renner 'Bourne again' in Australia

Actor Jeremy Renner arrives on a motorcycle for the premiere of The Bourne Legacy in Sydney. Picture: AP Source: AP

The Daily Telegraph reports

Fans lined the streets at the Australian premiere of The Bourne Legacy, as Jeremy Renner zoomed up on a motorcycle.

Renner, an avid motorcyclist, says his arrival was a nice excuse to drive on Sydney's streets.

"Yeah any chance I can (get), you know, why not, right?" he said.

Renner is no stranger to action roles, having appeared in The Avengers, The Hurt Locker and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and he says he did the majority of his own stunts in the new Bourne film.

However, while sightseeing on his first trip in Australia, Renner has chosen to stay more low-key, leaving the adrenaline-junkie activities for when he's making films.

"I'm not really running around, jumping off buildings or anything," he says. "I went to the zoo."

Renner plays agent Aaron Cross in The Bourne Legacy, the fourth film in the franchise and the first without Matt Damon starring.

Unlike Damon's Jason Bourne, Cross is more spy than assassin and from a different CIA program, although the events in The Bourne Ultimatum are what trigger his story into action.

It's written and directed by Tony Gilroy, who was a writer on the first three films and who walked the red carpet with Renner outside the State Theatre in Sydney's CBD on Tuesday night.

Gilroy says when Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass walked away from the franchise, he read it in the paper like everyone else.

"It really wasn't part of my life at that point," he says.

"I'd been in and out of this for 13 years, so I watched with interest as everybody else did."

Since making The Bourne Legacy, Gilroy is now waiting to see what the fans think before he even starts thinking about continuing the franchise.

"There's a limit to how much you can talk it up and I think we're at the limit," he says.

"In a few days it'll be time for the audience to get their hands on the movie and they'll tell us what to do."

So does he think Australia would be a good location to use for a future Bourne film?

Gilroy doesn't know yet, but he says this visit has been too short and if he had the opportunity to come back and film for a few months, he would take it.

"This is an extraordinary city and that's not just like throwing you a line, it's an amazing place," he says.

"I look forward very much to coming back here and I think the best way to come back to a place like this is to work here ...

"You've got a great situation here. You really do."

* The Bourne Legacy opens August 15 in Queensland, August 23 in WA and August 16 in all other states and territories.

Hollywood actor Jeremy Renner to be at premiere of controversial new film The Bourne Legacy at Sydney's State Theatre

Controversial film ... Jeremy Renner as Aaron Cross in new film The Bourne Legacy which he will premiere in Sydney and Melbourne. Source: Supplied

The Daily Telegraph reports

Hollywood action hunk Jeremy Renner is bound for Sydney.

The Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol star, who shot to stardom in the Oscar-winning war flick The Hurt Locker and starred as Hawkeye in The Avengers, will stroll the red carpet at Sydney's State Theatre on August 7 to premiere his new flick, the controversial The Bourne Legacy.

Renner famously scored the starring role following Matt Damon's decision to quit the action series after The Bourne Trilogy director Paul Greengrass stepped down.

Renner plays "super soldier" Aaron Cross in the new instalment directed by Tony Gilroy, who will also make the trip to Sydney.

Damon caused a stir last year when he revealed he turned down the fourth Bourne flick after disapproving of the script, telling GQ he thought Gilroy's writing was "unreadable".

"This is a career-ender," Damon said last year. "I mean, I could put this thing up on eBay and it would be game over for (Gilroy).

"It's terrible. It's really embarrassing. He was having a go, basically, and he took his money and left."

However, the Good Will Hunting star later back-tracked, saying: "If I didn't respect (Gilroy) and appreciate his talent, then I really wouldn't have cared."

He also added that he was "really pulling" for Renner and the flick to succeed.

"Even though I don't have anything to do with it," he said.

"Selfishly, it is bad for me if that movie doesn't do well."

Following the film's August 7 premiere at the State Theatre, Renner and Gilroy will head to Melbourne for a second red-carpet stroll on August 8.

Kneel at the altar of Joss Whedon's superhero mash-up The Avengers

Tension: Chris Evans as Captain America and Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man in The Avengers. Source: The Daily Telegraph

Maria Lewis, The Daily Telegraph, reports

The Avengers is the greatest action movie since Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Need further proof?

How about hundreds of fans embracing each other on George St at 3am in the morning after attending midnight screenings?

For the hardcore geeks out there - myself included – The Avengers is the accumulation of some of pop culture’s greatest superheroes. Together. In one movie.

It connects the crumbs and clues Marvel Studios have been leaving in their films since Iron Man and it doesn’t disappoint.

When a source of unlimited power is stolen by the embodiment of an emo in Thor’s brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), S.H.I.E.L.D commander Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is forced to assemble a team of people with “unique abilities” to combat the rising global threat.

The team is made up by Marvel’s tent-pole superheroes; Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Captain America (Chris Evans), Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and master assassins Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner).

But really, the specific story details are irrelevant because the main goal is to get all of the characters together - as a team - fighting against a common evil. Which it does.

It’s a film in three parts, with the first and second parts being there simply because they have to be; they introduce each of the individual characters, build sufficient tension and throw in the appropriate amount of witty banter.

Essentially it lays the groundwork for the final third which takes The Avengers from amazing to a-freaking-mazing.

It's Buffy creator and geek demi-god Joss Whedon’s baby from the get go.

Whedon conceived the story, wrote the screenplay and directed the film. It shows what can happen when you hand someone who isn’t Michael Bay $200M to make a blockbuster flick - magic.

On the way out of the midnight screening I heard a fan in front of me proclaim “Marvel have found their Nolan in Joss Whedon, man.”

He was of course referring to British comic book lover turned genius filmmaker Christopher Nolan who - at the helm of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight - has elevated what the superhero movie is in our collective consciousness.

I’d argue Marvel have found their Joss Whedon in Joss Whedon.

The filmmaker seamlessly brings The Avengers into the Whedonverse - adding biting wit, hilarious dialogue, physical gags, and emotional draw.

And action. Almost two hours of pure, glorious, perfectly choreographed action.

The cast too is perfect, no surprises there. Downey Jr’s Tony Stark/Iron Man is just as flawless as it was the first time he played him in 2008.

Mark Ruffalo manages to do what Eric Bana and Edward Norton both failed to do on screen and that’s make The Hulk interesting.

Also, Scarlett Johansson’s behind in that latex catsuit deserves its own spin off movie.

Brit Tom Hiddleston and his barely street legal cheekbones make for an enchanting villain, someone you can rally behind to hate.

Yet what is it that makes The Avengers so, so, SO much greater than the legion of superhero movies that have come before it?

Sure, Whedon’s talents have reached such a worshipable level I’m about ready to jump up and down on Oprah’s couch proclaiming my undying love for him.

It’s more than that.

Perhaps it’s because - as Hiddleston suggests - the tales of superheroes have become our form of modern mythology.

In a recent phone interview from London, he adds: “Most mythologies - Greek, Roman, Indian - they’re all highlighting very human ideological battles.

“Human beings have to project their neurosis’ on to those great figures.

“I think that’s what Marvel is now. Comics and superheroes and super villains, it’s the modern version of mythology.”

One thing is certain: despite the weight of fan expectation and pressure of juggling so many pop culture identities, it’s worth kneeling at the altar of The Avengers.

Edgerton puzzled about missing Bourne role

Article by Giles Hardie, Sydney Morning Herald

Warrior star Joel Edgerton is still puzzled about missing out on the lead in the post-Matt Damon Bourne movies - because he thought he had the part locked in.

Though Damon and director Paul Greengrass (who helmed the second and third films) have not signed on, an all star cast has been assembled to continue the hugely popular franchise.

Australian star Edggerton believed the online hype from earlier this year suggesting he would be Bourne for director Tony Gillroy's The Bourne Legacy, but he lost the role to Jeremy Renner - and he's still trying to make sense of it all.

"I don't know if I'll ever know the complete machinations of it. I do know there was really strong support for me from certain members of the team, but it wasn't unanimous," he said.

Edgerton, who is currently fliming Baz Lurhmann's The Great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan and Tobey Maguire will next be seen in this week's The Thing as an American helicopter pilot, and then in Warrior later this month, a film for which he is receiving Oscar buzz.