Jeremy Renner Set to Co-Star in Mission: Impossible 4

As great a film it was, can’t say too many folks actually saw The Hurt Locker. So I'm not 100% certain Jeremy Renner is that well-known to the masses. Yet.

He'll soon appear in Ben Affleck's The Town next month (I’m going in with realistic expectations, i.e. not expecting another Gone Baby Gone. That would be unfair to Affleck). Then there's The Avengers where Renner will play the bow-and-arrow yielding hero Hawkeye next to Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man, Chris Evans' Captain America, Chris Hemsworth's Thor and Samuel L. Jackson as himself.

Well, it doesn't stop there. "TOLDJA" reports he's in talks to co-star in Mission: Impossible 4. Not exactly something I pegged him to show up in. After all, he did reportedly turn down the more interesting-sounding Battleship (albeit that could end up being the turkey of summer 2012) and was/is still up for a lead role in Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master.

The idea is presumably he'll take over the franchise in the case that Tom Cruise loses his shit (again) and he doesn't have a golden goose in J.J. Abrams to back him up a second time.

This move also kills the chances of Chris Egan, Kevin Zegers and Renner's Hurt Locker co-star Anthony Mackie of joining the fourquel. Their planned screen-tests have reportedly been cancelled.