Jeremy Renner takes on the CIA as smeared journalist Gary Webb in Kill The Messenger

When an actor is a hot commodity or new to the scene we usually get an overabundance of films staring said actor. Because clearly if we paid money to see an actor in one movie, we’ll go to another dozen movies next year that all have that actor as the lead, right? I call it “The Colin Farrell Syndrome,” which is also the name of my progressive rock band (just kidding.) It’s where an actor has shown great potential, either in his performance or in box office receipts, but because of studios trying to emulate that success there ends up being an over-saturation of films with the same actor. And that’s when we start saying, “God, another movie with ‘so-and-so’? I’m so sick of him, he makes me physically ill. Give me your copy of AMERICAN OUTLAWS so I have something to puke on.”

Jeremy Renner has drifted into that territory after THE AVENGERS (probably a little before that with THE TOWN, but THE AVENGERS sealed the deal) with him being linked or rumored to what seems like every role that calls for a white 30-40 year old male.

Deadline has news that he has signed on for the thriller KILL THE MESSENGER. Based on “the true story of Gary Webb, a San Jose Mercury News reporter who committed suicide after being the target of a smear campaign when he linked the CIA to a scheme to arm Contra rebels in Nicaragua and import cocaine into California,” the film will be directed by Michael Cuesta, who is the executive director of Homeland. He also directed several episodes of the hit television show.

The script is said to be based on two books: Dark Alliance: The CIA, The Contras, and The Crack Cocaine Explosion by Webb and Nick Schou’s Kill The Messenger: How The CIA’S-Crack Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb.

I haven’t read too much on Gary Webb, but from what I can gather it’s a pretty tragic tale. It would really suck to have your livelihood and passion be taken away from you because others don’t like the truth or didn’t want to believe it. It’d be like if I had proof that Salma Hayek was actually a man, but JoBlo didn’t want to run the story because it would shatter the hearts (and lower regions) of most of our audience. Obviously a crack cocaine scandal is a little more important than that, but you get the point.

If you like your CIA thrillers to be a little more grounded in reality you may want to check out the books and be on the lookout for more news on this film.