Back in October it was reported that Chris Pine (Star Trek) was in negotiations to step into the shoes of Jack Ryan and help reboot the franchise. Now comes news, via the Invictus press conference, that Chris Pine will indeed star in the next Jack Ryan film – making him the fourth actor to do so.
The character of Jack Ryan has previous appeared in four movies: Alec Baldwin originated the character in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October, Harrison Ford played him in 1992’s Patriot Games and 1994’s A Clear and Present Danger, and Ben Affleck played Ryan in 2002’s The Sum of All Fears.
It was during the press conference for Clint Eastwood’s latest movie that producer Mace Neufeld recently gave a brief update on the new project, stating that this next film will not be based on one of Tom Clancy’s novels, rather on a script by Hossein Amini – which is currently undergoing a rewrite from screenwriter Adam Koxac:
We pick him up when he’s on Wall Street… [but] the Jack Ryan movies have never been action films. They’re kind of ‘thinking man’s thrillers.’ Jack is referred to as a ‘water-walker’ because of his ability to jump ahead to conclusions. That’s very big in all the Jack Ryan films and that’s how we want to portray him. He’s a teacher. He’s a historian. He’s a linguist. And he’s really smart.
It will be interesting to see what Tom Clancy/Jack Ryan fans think of a new film without Clancy’s involvement, whether Paramount can create an original story as thrilling as Patriot Games or A Clear and Present Danger remains to be seen – but it has to be better than The Sum of All Fears right?
