The Next Jack Ryan Movie Won't Be an Origin Story

Before now, all we really knew about the next Jack Ryan film is that Chris Pine (Star Trek) would be taking up the role, picking up where Ben Affleck left off in 2002. But producer Mace Neufeld answered questions about the project during a press conference for Invictus, and Coming Soon got the skinny on Jack Ryan. The most important element that came to light was that this won't be based on a previously published Tom Clancy work but rather an original screenplay. And yes, the effort is being made to give the franchise new life (and a longer life) by grabbing a young star to play Ryan, but this won't be an origin story. "We pick him up when he's on Wall Street," says Neufeld, "The Jack Ryan movies have never been action films. They're kind of 'thinking man's thrillers,'" the producer contends. "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." That's not a lot of plot, but I would imagine Ryan finds himself in the middle of an untenable situation, only to find his way out of it as an LED read-out counts down to three seconds left. That's if I had to guess. To me, Pine earned his shot for a role like this after tackling an even more iconic pop culture hero in James T. Kirk and coming out smelling like a rose. If it were just based on popularity, the way the Affleck selection was, that might be an issue. But Pine showed he can be a movie star with a little bit of swagger in Star Trek, so I'll give him a chance here.

Comments

[Lisa]

What is the point of this? OK Jack Ryan is whomever is hot at the moment and Chris Pine is hot. They are making a Jack Ryan movie without even using a Tom Clancy novel. So why does it have to be Jack Ryan? If they are going to make an original story why can't they make an original character?