The man just can’t stay on the right side of the law. Whether it’s playing a greedy, rogue S.W.A.T. officer (S.W.A.T.), a red-neck rapist (North Country) or violent thief (The Town), Jeremy Renner knows how to play it bad.
He’s going back to the well. The actor is attached to star in King of Heists, based on the non-fiction book from J. North Conway, titled King of Heists: The Sensational Bank Robbery of 1878 That Shocked America. [Deadline]
Renner will play 27-year old architect George Leslie, who comes to New York in 1869 with dreams of adventure and success. So begins a double life amongst the upper class in beautifully-lit ballrooms and the lower class on the streets within the criminal underworld. Then, in 1878, he robbed the the Manhattan Savings Institution for around $3 million.
Conway’s book takes a note from Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, which took a fictional hand to the very real serial killing events that populated the infamous 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. Conway includes colorful historical figures, such as Brooklyn Bridge engineer John Roebling.
Will Staples (who’s got the likes of James Cameron, Sam Worthington and Lorenzo di Bonaventura circling his script Myth) will write the script adaptation. There is no director on the project yet.
Renner has Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol coming up later this year, The Avengers next year (where he’s playing Hawkeye of course!!!) as well as The Bourne Legacy, currently shooting around New York.
What do you think of Renner jumping back into the crimewave? How good is he playing bad?