Jeremy Renner vs. the CIA in 'Kill the Messenger'

Deadline.com has announced that Jeremy Renner, who recently starred in "The Bourne Legacy," will play an investigative journalist targeted by the CIA in a film directed by Michael Cuesta, the director of "Homeland."

Filming will start on "Kill the Messenger" this summer.

The movie is based on the tragic true story of reporter Gary Webb. In 1996, the journalist published a series of articles in the San Jose Mercury News that accused the CIA of being involved in drug trafficking with rebels from Nicaragua.

According to Webb, the Central Intelligence Agency was introducing crack into the black suburbs of Los Angeles.

Gary Webb was accused of making baseless accusations, denounced by the press and slandered by the CIA. On December 10, 2004, the reporter was found dead with two gunshots to the head. The inquest ruled it was a suicide.

For "Kill the Messenger," scriptwriter Peter Landesman ("Parkland") will seek inspiration from Gary Webb's articles, which were published under the title "Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion."