Tony Gilroy talks The Bourne Legacy

Jeremy Renner might have been edged towards the sidelines as Hawkeye in The Avengers , but he’ll soon be the star of the show in upcoming action extravaganza The Bourne Legacy .

Director Tony Gilroy has been discussing the forthcoming sort-of-sequel, describing the challenge in combining the universe known to fans of the original trilogy with a storyline for a whole new audience.

“To make it live, we had to go wider and have a wider perspective,” he explains. “I guess it's well known now it's a much wider story and a much wider horizon, and that has a whole bunch of different demands.”

“A part of the fun is playing on the lore of stuff that happened before,” continues Gilroy. “You have to make a movie people can see for the first time and not know what happened before, but you also want to pay back people who have been paying attention along the way.”

As for the differences between Jason Bourne and Renner’s character, Aaron Cross, Gilroy is able to go into a little more detail.

“Cousin programs, different skill sets, and different attitudes,” he says. “Both have a need, a different need. That was the only reason I would jump on this, otherwise you're just knitting together an action movie, and that's not that big a deal.”

“He's certainly not the same guy,” says Gilroy of Cross. “He doesn't have amnesia and is not trying to figure out who he is. He knows exactly who he is, but he has a big problem. This character has another problem, one that is hopefully just as fundamental and mythic.”

As to what that problem is, Gilroy won't disclose any further info. Looks like there will be some secrets left intact when The Bourne Legacy opens in the UK on 17 August 2012...

George was once GamesRadar's resident movie news person, based out of London. He understands that all men must die, but he'd rather not think about it. But now he's working at Stylist Magazine.