All right, Jeremy Renner. We get it. You’re relentless. You’re Hawkeye, you’re the new Jason Bourne, you’re Mission: Impossible’s heir apparent, and you’re something in Ice Age 4.
But between you and me? I don’t think you’re Steve McQueen.
Oh, I’m sorry. We’re being rude. Other people are reading this, so let’s update them.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Renner doesn’t have enough on his plate, so he’s forming his own production company called The Combine. They’re not sitting around and talking about things they’d like to make, they’ve immediately set about making a Steve McQueen biopic. James Gray is writing the screenplay, and Renner is planning to star as the icon of all that is cool and badass.
There’s been a few McQueen biopics dancing in and out of production. Steve McQueen: Portrait of an American Rebel was optioned in 2009 by producers Christine Peters and Michael Cerenzie, but never attached a screenwriter or a director that I know of. I believe Neile McQueen Toffel’s My Husband, My Friend was optioned the same year, or earlier, by David Foster, McQueen’s former publicist. It was one step ahead of Rebel with two screenwriters, Roderick and Bruce Taylor, attached and adapting it. Both seem to be in the misty stages of pre-production.
I love McQueen. He had an incredible life, and it’s worthy of a movie. But the guy was a legend in his own right, and his cinematic legacy shows no sign of letting up. I suppose a biopic gets a few young punks to rent Bullitt or The Great Escape, but it seems so superfluous when he’s a shorthand for all that’s cool.
And come on, isn’t this the only guy that could ever really play him? Didn’t we all agree on that in 2006?
