In Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, actor Jeremy Renner plays Agent William Brandt, an analyst who is more desk jockey than field agent. When Impossible Missions Force (IMF) operative Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is blamed for the terrorist bombing of the Kremlin, he is disavowed, along with the rest of the agency, when the President initiates “Ghost Protocol.” Left with only a team of fellow IMF fugitives – including Brandt, Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) and Jane Carter (Paula Patton) – whose personal motives are unclear, Hunt must find a way to clear the agency’s name and prevent another attack.

At the film’s press day, Jeremy Renner talked about playing a character whose motives may be questionable, how great it is to be a part of such a successful franchise, getting in shape for the physical demands of the role, and how Tom Cruise has helped him prepare for any future action work he’ll have to do. He also talked about currently filming The Bourne Legacy, his work in The Avengers, what attracted him to the James Gray film Low Life, and the process of developing a Steve McQueen biopic. Check out what he had to say after the jump.

Back in April, it was announced that actor Jeremy Renner was developing a biopic on “The King of Cool”, actor Steve McQueen. We knew that James Gray (We Own the Night) was writing the script, and commercials director Ivan Zacharias would be making his feature directorial debut, but we haven’t heard much about the project since then. Recently Steve got the chance to speak with producer Brian Oliver (President of Cross Creek Pictures) about his upcoming political drama The Ides of March and he gave an update on the McQueen project. In addition to revealing that the film will most likely be in 3D, Oliver talked about the status of the script, distribution, and Renner’s passion for the pic despite his suddenly very busy schedule.

Oliver also spoke a bit about the Benjamin Franklin film Hellfire Club, which chronicles Franklin’s time in London before the start of the Revolutionary War when he ran around with the fairly deviant group of intellectuals known as the “Hellfire Club” (behavior included sex parties in caves, to give you a bit of an idea). Hit the jump to see what Oliver had to say about both projects.