December 12, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 23 ‘The Bourne Legacy’ features new protagonist by Dennis Seuling Switching stars in a profitable movie sequel is risky business. It can make for disaster (“Grease 2”) or yield surprisingly good results (“Batman Begins”). That is the challenge faced by “The Bourne Legacy” (Universal Home Entertainment), the fourth in the Bourne series and the first starring Jeremy Renner (“The Hurt Locker”). The previous Bourne movie, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” released in 2007, starred Matt Damon, who created the role on screen. When Damon and director Paul Greengrass decided to take some time off from the series, Universal faced the same problem Columbia did with Spider-Man: How do you keep a lucrative franchise alive without the star and the director who made it a success? A lot was at stake. The first three Bourne pictures had earned nearly a billion dollars worldwide. Rather than have a new actor assume the role, the production created an entirely new covert governmenttrained assassin: Aaron Cross. Several actors were considered, among them Jake Gyllenhaal, Tobey Maguire, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Fassbender, Alex Pettyfer, Kellen Lutz, Josh Hartnett, Paul Dano, and Michael Pitt. After a long series of auditions, Renner won the role. “The Bourne Legacy” is not, therefore, technically a sequel. Call it a spinoff, with a new protagonist and new-to-the-franchise director Tony Gilroy expanding the saga created by Robert Ludlum. Cross faces life-ordeath stakes triggered by events of the first three films. Also new to the series are Edward Norton, Rachel Weisz, Stacy Keach, and Oscar Isaac. Franchise veterans Albert Finney, Joan Allen, David Strathairn, and Scott Glenn reprise their roles from the earlier films. Special features on the two-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo offspring. They write his characteristics and life events on pieces of paper, place them in a box and bury it in their backyard. One stormy night sometime later, a muddy 10year-old (C.J. Adams) arrives at their doorstep, claiming the Greens as his own. Cindy and Jim, along with their neighbors, learn that sometimes the unexpected can bring some of life’s greatest gifts. “He’s a boy with the qualities that his parents hope for,” says director Peter Hedges, but “those qualities manifest in ways they never could have imagined.” The Greens get exactly what they wished for. Timothy doesn’t have any emotional memories and he is completely naive about how the world works. What initially appears to be a kids’ film is not about (continued on Crossword page) Rachel Weisz and Jeremy Renner in a scene from ‘The Bourne Legacy.’ pack include seven behind-the-scenes featurettes, feature commentary with the creative team, a digital copy, and deleted scenes. “The Odd Life of Timothy Green” (Disney Home Entertainment) is an old-fashioned kind of movie. It is a fantasy that depends less on computer-generated special effects and elaborate action sequences than on average folks in familiar, everyday settings. A happily married couple, Cindy and Jim Green (Jennifer Garner, Joel Edgerton), saddened by their inability to conceive, spend an evening dreaming up their ideal