After a lengthy search, Universal Pictures has chosen the actor they want to replace Matt Damon in the Bourne franchise, and that actor is two-time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner.

It’s being reported that Universal has “formally offered” the role to Renner, and that he’s expected to sign on very soon. He’ll be playing a new character in that world and not the Jason Bourne character Damon played. The movie, which is considered a spinoff of the original trilogy that was based on the books of Robert Ludlum, will be an original story about “…an operative from a covert government program that is even more dangerous than the Treadstone brainwashing program that hatched Bourne.”

The new movie, titled The Bourne Legacy, is set to be directed by Tony Gilroy, who has previously delivered Michael Clayton and Duplicity. Gilroy is also writing the screenplay after penning the scripts for The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. He’s also written or helped with the scripts for Dolores Claiborne, Extreme Measures, The Devil’s Advocate, Armageddon, Proof of Life, and State of Play.

Renner is best known from his Oscar-nominated work in The Hurt Locker and The Town, and has also appeared in titles like S.W.A.T., 28 Weeks Later, and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

The actor is a hot talent right now, with other upcoming projects including Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, where he’s set to play Hawkeye.

[Source: Deadline]