Jeremy Renner has found his first movie role since his near-fatal snowplow accident. Renner is the latest star to join Rian Johnson's new “Knives Out” movie, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” a Netflix representative confirmed to The Times on Thursday.
The Hawkeye actor joins an already star-studded cast that includes Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Glenn Close and the returning Daniel Craig. “Challengers” star Josh O'Connor, “Priscilla” star Cailee Spaeny and “Fleabag” actor Andrew Scott also appear in the crime mystery. Johnson returns as writer and director.
“Wake Up Dead Man” is the latest film in Netflix’s $450 million two-movie purchase. “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” (2022) is the streaming giant's ninth most-viewed English-language film of all time with more than 136 million views. The first film was distributed by Lionsgate and grossed around $313 million at the global box office.
Renner was hit by a 7-ton snow plow on New Year's Day 2023. He was thrown from the machine while clearing his driveway. When Renner attempted to stop the snowplow as it moved downhill toward his nephew, he became trapped in the path of the machine, ultimately leaving him in critical condition. The accident left him with 38 broken bones and a collapsed lung, in addition to significant chest trauma.
“I relive it every night,” Renner told The Times in May. “She is in my visions. It is in my dreams and in my waking thoughts.”
Doctors originally said it would take years for him to walk, Renner told The Times. Due to his self-proclaimed stubbornness, within three months he was already walking with a cane.
He told the Times that the recovery is a “one-way street” and said: “It's not even [like] an Ikea piece of furniture; there are no instructions. You are going in one direction: improvements. How easy is that? Just remember what you did yesterday or what you couldn't do, and then try to do it today.”
Renner returned to acting in January, filming season 3 of the Paramount+ show “Mayor of Kingstown,” which premieres Sunday.
“Trying to create something true and then get the public to believe it, while I'm just trying to learn to walk again, to put one foot in front of the other and not get up in agony. “I’m doing all these things to find my place on the planet again,” Renner said.
The second season of “Mayor of Kingstown” premiered just two weeks after Renner's accident. The show, created by Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon, is set in a prison town in which Renner plays the titular mayor. Explores themes of racism and corruption within the for-profit American prison industry.
