Jeremy Renner has had quite a year, nominated for Best Actor with last summer’s The Hurt Locker and this summer he will star in Ben Affleck‘s Gone Baby Gone follow-up, The Town. Now, Reuters is reporting that the actor is confirmed to star alongside Ewan McGregor in James McTeigue‘s Raven, inspired by Edgar Allen Poe‘s famous poem. Check out Firstshowing‘s report below.

The Raven follows Poe and the last five days before his death. As McTeigue explains: “It’s basically set in 1850s Baltimore. The logline would be: an amalgamation of Poe’s stories crossed with Se7en. It’s about a serial killer loose in 1850s Baltimore.” We don’t know exactly what role Renner will be playing, but it’s probably the lead role of Edgar Allen Poe.

The news article also says he is in talks with Universal and Peter Berg to play the lead role in Battleship, but has many different projects lined up:

He’s also had no fewer than five meetings to star in another project, which he declines to reveal. Both films are expected to shoot in the summer, so Renner will be choosing between the two.

McTeigue’s last two movies, Ninja Assassin and V For Vendetta, have been all style over substance, so it’s unfortunate this is what Renner is doing next. While Battleship sounds pretty stupid, it looks like Peter Berg has some big ideas for it so hopefully it turns out better than Hancock. I loved Renner in The Hurt Locker and only wish him the best in his very promising career.

Battleship is set for a May 25th, 2012 release, while no date is known for The Raven.

Would you want to see Renner in Battleship? What about Raven?

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