Jeremy Renner Attends Premiere, Months after Snowplow Crush

Host and Executive Producer Jeremy Renner arrives for the red carpet premiere of Disney+ original series "Rennervations" at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on April 11, 2023. (AFP)
Host and Executive Producer Jeremy Renner arrives for the red carpet premiere of Disney+ original series "Rennervations" at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on April 11, 2023. (AFP)
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Jeremy Renner Attends Premiere, Months after Snowplow Crush

Host and Executive Producer Jeremy Renner arrives for the red carpet premiere of Disney+ original series "Rennervations" at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on April 11, 2023. (AFP)
Host and Executive Producer Jeremy Renner arrives for the red carpet premiere of Disney+ original series "Rennervations" at the Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, California, on April 11, 2023. (AFP)

Jeremy Renner attended the premiere for his new series Tuesday, capping a remarkable recovery less than four months after the “Avengers” star was nearly killed in a snowplow accident.

Renner was surrounded by family and supporters at the “Rennervations” premiere in Los Angeles, where he posed for photos and did interviews, at times making use of a cane and a knee scooter. At one point he flashed photographers a thumbs up sign while moving down the carpet.

Renner was crushed by his 7-ton snowplow on New Year’s Day while trying to help free a relative’s car at his Nevada home. The actor has said he broke numerous bones and suffered a collapsed lung and pierced liver in the accident.

“Rennervations,” which premieres on Disney+ on Wednesday, follows Renner as he transforms large vehicles into community spaces for young people in India, Mexico, Chicago and Nevada. The purposes range from serving as a mobile music studio to a water filtration truck for a community in India.

Renner said his aim was to give young people access to things they might not already have and present opportunities they might not know existed.

Renner wrote the theme song for the show, something he did while working on another show.

“I use music and piano to write songs and use it like therapy for me,” he said.

Construction and music have been creative outlets for Renner, who is best known for playing the superhero Hawkeye in the Marvel “Avengers” films and his own spin-off TV series.

Marvel co-star Anthony Mackie appears in the show, and Renner said the secret to their friendship is they “laugh a lot.”

Renner, a two-time Oscar nominee, told Diane Sawyer in an interview that aired that while he thought he might die from his injuries, he refused to be “haunted” by the accident.



Francis Ford Coppola Thinks 'Megalopolis' Outweighs Ordinary Film Ideas

 Francis Ford Coppola attends the premiere of "Megalopolis" on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at AMC Lincoln Square in New York. (AP)
Francis Ford Coppola attends the premiere of "Megalopolis" on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at AMC Lincoln Square in New York. (AP)
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Francis Ford Coppola Thinks 'Megalopolis' Outweighs Ordinary Film Ideas

 Francis Ford Coppola attends the premiere of "Megalopolis" on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at AMC Lincoln Square in New York. (AP)
Francis Ford Coppola attends the premiere of "Megalopolis" on Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, at AMC Lincoln Square in New York. (AP)

Renowned American director Francis Ford Coppola believes his harshly criticized science fiction film “Megalopolis” offers audiences a unique narrative vastly different from what they are accustomed to seeing.

"We're so used to seeing movies that are like other movies because they're financed that way,” Coppola told Reuters during a Zoom interview while he was at the Toronto International Film Festival, where the film was also screened.

"It's [movies like other movies] always something that's already proven that it will make money. It's like a potato chip that you know is habit forming and 'Megalopolis' is new,” he added.

After debuting this year at the Cannes Film Festival, Coppola's $120 million self-funded project is going to be shared with broader audiences when it arrives to US movie theaters on Friday.

While the film will be distributed by Lionsgate, Coppola maintains ownership of the movie.

Adam Driver stars as Cesar Catilina, an architect-scientist who wants to better a fictional version of New York City called New Rome, pitting him against Mayor Franklyn Cicero, played by Giancarlo Esposito, who prizes authority and institutions over change.

Catilina falls in love with the mayor's daughter, Julia, played by "Game of Thrones"' Nathalie Emmanuel, as she helps him work towards his vision and re-ignites his power to stop time.

When asked if “Megalopolis” is an allegory for his film-making journey, the 85-year-old director said, “All of my films are.”

“When I was young and made 'The Godfather,'” I had to be like Michael [Michael Corleone] because I had no power and I had to be very Machiavellian. When I made 'Apocalypse Now,' I was in an absurd situation with helicopters and millions of dollars every week that I was paying for, so I had to become a megalomaniac like Kurtz [Colonel Kurtz]. You know, I have always become the characters in my movies just to survive,” he added.

While the press response to the movie has been poor with a low score of 51% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Driver believes “Megalopolis” is a film that needs more than one viewing to be truly absorbed.

"I think it does have legs and I think it is something that you want to return to and can return to and mine something else out of it," Driver said. "And it, you know, has a place in people's minds as being one of a kind, which I don't think a lot of films can say that, you know."