Jeremy Renner Closing The Deal?

About a year ago there were reports suggesting that actor, Jeremy Renner, was set to play the character, "Hawkeye" in the upcoming 2012, "The Avengers". He was then in an interview and perfectly made it clear that he wasn't going for the role.
Now it seems that newer news has came up saying that he is close to closing the deal with Marvel on playing the character in "The Avengers" and it's sequels and possibly a spin-off film with the character. So lets hope he goes for it, because that means that the studio are one step closer to start filming sooner than we thought.