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.

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.