If ComicBookMovie is correct, it appears that Jeremy Renner did not learn the lessons of Terrence Howard and Edward Norton and will now pay the price for it.

The website is quoting “Hollywood sources” in saying that the actor who played Clint Barton/Hawkeye in both Thor and The Avengers is being dropped by Marvel Studios, mainly due to negative comments he made about his role in the latter film.

Renner was candid in his feelings about the way his character was portrayed on screen in an interview with Total Film magazine:

“For 90 percent of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. It’s kind of a vacancy. [He's] not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses … I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No.”

To be fair to Renner, he does have a point. On the other hand, Hawkeye pretty much serves the same purpose as Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow character, and since Johansson joined the Marvel family first, she gets to play the hero and they had to find something else for Renner to do. That being said, even in the 10% of the film where he WAS the character he signed on to play, he really didn’t make that much of an impression. His quiver had more personality than his Hawkeye did.

But regardless, Marvel has made a point not keeping any actor who is unhappy or unable to work the Marvel way. Terrence Howard was rumored to be difficult to work with during Iron Man. so his role as James Rhodes was minimized in the sequel and he was asked to take a substantial pay cut. He balked and was allowed to walk and Don Cheadle (who was rumored to be Marvel’s first choice originally) took his place. Edward Norton was supposedly so hands-on during The Incredible Hulk that rumor has it he even did script rewrites on set. This didn’t sit well with Marvel or Joss Whedon, so in The Avengers he was replaced with Mark Ruffalo (who was rumored to also be Marvel’s first choice for the role). Hugo Weaving has also been very vocal about  not being excited about his role as the Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger and has expressed not being interested in reprising his role in the future. Well, everyone from Toby Jones to Hayley Atwell to Dominic Cooper will be back for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, but not Weaving.

All of this makes the rumor very plausible. And all things considered, this might be the best thing for Renner. He has a burgeoning franchise in Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters(which made an inexplicable amount of money overseas), appears to be in line to take over the Mission Impossible franchise in the event Tom Cruise ever lets go of it, and while many view The Bourne Legacy as a disappointing entry into the franchise, it made enough money worldwide that he might be in the mix if they continue with it. While, at Marvel, his next appearance would have been in a similar, low-key capacity in The Avengers 2. Hawkeye wouldn’t be even considered for a solo film until 2016, and there are a lot of characters, concepts and ideas in development ahead of him.

The source also brings up the possibility of the character being recast and appearing on the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. If the role is recast, it will probably be with whoever Marvel’s first choice for the role was.

Paramount is wasting no time in getting their next Mission: Impossible film into development. Having secured the services of franchise star Tom Cruise for a fifth installment just last week, the studio has found themselves a writer to pen the adventure. Landing the gig is Drew Pearce, who scripted this summer’s Iron Man 3. No doubt that film’s already impressive billion dollar take at the box office helped to inform that decision.

Still no word yet as to who may be directing the film, but I would assume that that decision should come quickly in order for Pearce to have someone to shape the screenplay with. Cruises’ Jack Reacher collaborator Christopher McQuarrie still remains the rumored frontrunner, even though he signed last week to write and direct a remake of Ice Station Zebra for Warner Brothers.

Via Deadline.

Tom Cruise has chosen to accept another mission. The actor has signed to produce and star in a fifth Mission: Impossible film for Paramount Pictures.

The news doesn’t come as much as a surprise as the fourth installment, 2011′s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, pulled in nearly $695 million at the box office.

No official word yet as to anyone writing and/or directing the film, but the rumored favorite for the combined gig is Christopher McQuarrie, who performed the same duties on Cruise’s Jack Reacher released earlier this year. Of course, Jack Reacher was only McQuarrie’s second feature as a director, so the studio may be reluctant to hand over the reigns of their multimillion dollar franchise to him. But if he has formed a strong enough working relationship with Cruise, I am sure that the star will be able to throw his weight around to get him the gig.

Whoever gets the job of writing the film will have some time to get the screenplay into shape. The next two projects Cruise has on his schedule are the big screen adaptation of The Man From UNCLE with Armie Hammer and the Warner Brothers’s sci-fi epic Yukikaze.

1. Oblivion (Universal, 3,782 Theaters, 126 Minutes, Rated PG-13): It is not going to be good year for comic book film haters when even unpublished graphic novels get adapted into films.

This film was originally supposed to be a graphic novel published by Radical Comics (which is less of a comic book company than a ‘Hey! Hollywood! Look at me! We’re an IP factory!” company), but was optioned for the screen before the comic could be published. And since, like I said, Radical publishes comics pretty much so they can be shown to Hollywood studios and licensed to them, having a comic book for this work would be superfluous.

The film stars Tom Cruise as one of the last remaining humans, whose job is scouring a post-Alien invasion Earth for what few remaining natural resources are left to take to a human settlement on Titan. Or, so he thinks. But he will soon find out that what he believes is true might not actually be what is really going on.

Tom Cruise is in early talks to headline Warner Brothers’ big screen revival of the 1960s spy spoof television series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. Director Guy Ritchie, the man behind the studio’s popular Sherlock Holmes films featuring Robert Downey Jr., took over developing the project after Steven Soderbergh dropped out.

No writer has been announced for the project.

The original series ran from 1964 to 1968 and starred Robert Vaughan and David McCallum as Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin as two agents of the United Network Command for Law Enforcement fighting the evil forces of THRUSH.

Frankly, it is beginning to look like Cruise is hogging up all the franchises. He already has the Mission: Impossible series and it is looking as if last year’s Jack Reacher, based on an installment of Lee Child’s mystery novel series, may launch a series. And yes, Cruise probably still have enough clout to open a movie, especially when tied to a known quantity like U.N.C.L.E. would be, but I would still like to see someone else get a shot at the role.

Via Deadline.

Last month, the prospects of Tom Cruise’s film Jack Reacher earning enough at the box office to warrant a sequel seemed pretty dim. But that was before the film opened in the Asian territories of Japan, China and Korea, where it seems to have done fairly well, as Deadline is reporting that the film’s box office receipts have now crossed the $200 million mark and studio Paramount is now considering whether a follow up would be in order. Of course, this is still lower than the previously reported $250 million mark for the studio to start work on a sequel but it is possible that the studio is hoping that a second installment will kick start things financially.

The film is based on one of the novels in writer Lee Child’s popular novel series which contains 16 installments so far. The film was based on the novel One Shot, the ninth in the series. The producers have a wide range of possibilities of where to go for a story and I think that if they pick a novel that came before One Shot it won’t necessarily be presented as a prequel.

It is not unreasonable to think that Tom Cruise was looking for a new film franchise when he signed on to Jack Reacher. The project was based on a series of popular thriller novels from writer Lee Child and had the potential to reach out to the same audience as the James Bond and Tom Clancy-penned Jack Ryan franchises.

Unfortunately, it is looking as if that plan might not be working out. The Hollywood Reporter has taken a look at the box office receipts for Jack Reacher and in its three weeks of release, it is looking as if the film will won’t quite hit the $250 million box office that studio Paramount has set as the benchmark to trigger a follow up film. Currently, the film has only earned $72.6 million domestically and $80.4 million internationally, for a total of $153 million. With the film not expected to get past $85 million domestically, the film would need to clear $165 million internationally to meet Paramount’s goal.

The film has yet to open in certain key Asian territories including Japan, China and Korea. But can the film basically double its current foreign box office take in these three countries? The Reporter points out that it is possible, but it will be an uphill fight. When the film opens in China on February 16, it will be competing against two other Chinese films that are opening over the Chinese New Year holidays and will only have a week before Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey opens on the 22nd. In Japan, box office is driven more by women ticket buyers who prefer more romantic fare rather than an action film like Jack Reacher.

But if the film does hit the magic number that Paramount is hoping for, the studio and the film’s production producers Skydance will still have to negotiate a deal with Cruise to keep any sequel at the approximately $60 million budget that the current film has.

And if that $250 million goal is reached and all involved agree to move forward with a new film, there are 16 of Child’s novels waiting for adaption, providing plenty of fertile material for many sequels to come.

1. Jack Reacher (Paramount, 3,352 Theaters, 130 Minutes, Rated PG-13): So, the problem with this film is not that Tom Cruise is trying to play a bad ass. He’s starred in the Mission Impossible films, and he had bad ass moments in all of them.

The problem is that he is playing a character described in the novels the film is adapted from as being a 6’5″bruiser. No matter what you think of Cruise’d acting skills, there’s no way the 5’7″ actor can pull off looking almost a foot taller.

Of course, the last time Cruise was criticized for being miscasted as a popular literary character–Lestat in Interview With a Vampire–he acquitted himself quite nicely. So, maybe the same will happen here.

2. This Is 40 (Universal, 2,912 Theaters, 134 Minutes, Rated R): Judd Apatow is billing this as the “sort-of sequel” to Knocked Up. “Sort-of” is right. Outside of Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann (Apatow’s wife) as Pete and Debbie and Maude and Iris Apatow (Apatow and Mann’s daughters), the only other person from the original cast is Jason Segel, who, if I recall correctly, had little or no contact with either Pete or Debbie in the orginal film. IMDB doesn’t show either Seth Rogen or Katherine Heigl, who played Debbie’s sister, in the cast list.

But it appears that this film is trying to attract the same audience. Good luck with that. Ilike Apatow’s work, but Knocked Up focused on a bunch of 20-something stoners goofing around until life butted in. This is about a pair of 40-year-olds dealing with the fact that they are on the cusp of not being able to be called young and beginning to be called old. I don’t see a lot of cross over in those audiences.

Tom Cruise may be going out on a fifth impossible mission and Christopher McQuarrie may be the man behind it.

Deadline is reporting that McQuarrie is the choice of Paramount Studios’s choice to direct their planned Mission: Impossible 5.

Cruise and McQuarrie have a decent history together these past few years. McQuarrie has already directed Cruise in the upcoming thriller Jack Reacher, which McQuarrie adapted from Lee Child’s novel One Shot. Additionally, McQuarrie has written the Cruise 2010 vehicle Valkyrie and done script doctoring work on the last Mission: Impossible film, the upcoming Cruise film All You Need Is Kill and the now-in-limbo Top Gun 2.

A final offer will probably not be made to until after the studio hires a writer for the project, according to Deadline, though I would not be surprised if at some point McQuarrie takes a pass on the screenplay himself.

1. Rock Of Ages (Warner Brothers, 3,470 Theaters, 123 Minutes, Rated PG-13): Part of me wants to love this movie. I like the idea of taking pop songs from a particular era and building a musical around them. However, another part of me wishes it wasn’t done in such a pandering way as it is done here.

Granted, I have not seen the play the film is based on, but it seems callously constructed to warm the hearts of anyone who grew up in the 1980s (or after and loved the music from that decade) with less concern for good storytelling than hitting emotional notes.

I am intrigued by the cast. The film is front loaded with unknowns and newbies, with experienced actors such as Tom Cruise and Alec Baldwin providing support. Risky move for a summer blockbuster.

2. That’s My Boy! (Sony/Columbia, 3,030 Theaters, 114 Minutes, Rated R): I saw one TV ad for this film, and it told me absolutely nothing about its plot. It was basically was scene after scene of Adam Sandler acting like a moron. Which, when you think of it, is all the film really needs. It’s targeting Sandler fans because in every film he acts like a moron to some extent.

But , for those of you who like to know what the films you might see are actually about, here is the plot. Sandler play Donny, a man who impregnated one of his teachers while he was in high school. For some incredulous reason, Donny was allowed to to raise the child on his own. When his son, Todd (Andy Samberg) turns 18, he hits the ground running, leaving his father with no intention of ever looking back. Years later, as Todd is preparing to get married, Donny returns again.

I can take or leave Adam Sandler’s films, the sillier he acts or the more stupid the premise the more I want to leave it. This seems like a “leave it” kind of film for me.