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Monday
06Jul2009

George Clooney as Jack Ryan?

DateMonday, July 6, 2009 at 2:47PM
George Clooney is leaving Warner Bros., where he's worked either in the TV studios on ER or on the lot with one of his production companies for nearly two decades. His Smokehouse label will move to Sony, although that doesn't mean his movies will only be distributed through that studio. That wasn't even the case at Warner Bros.

Anne Thompson at Variety picked up the scent of one intriguing off-shoot in a story about that announcement by Kim Masters that Clooney is moving to Sony: He might want to play Jack Ryan. Now, that Tom clancy series is over at Paramount and not Sony, but establishing another franchise would allow Clooney to go off and do what he is really good at, somewhat surprisingly: Good movies with modest budgets.

Syriana, Good Night and Good Luck, and Burn After Reading cost less than $100 million combined. Michael Clayton came in well under $40 million. But even those films, despite their lower cost, still aren't commercially viable on paper, so they won't be easy to keep making unless Clooney can deliver some opening weekends somewhere else. Enter Jack Ryan, or so the thick fog of Hollywood rumors would suggest.

Paramount made it known last year that the series was back on the menu, with Sam Raimi initially linked to helm what would be the fifth movie. That is apparently dead, at least for the moment, but if Clooney is legitimately interested - and Paramount has every reason to be interested in him - then that would line up directors pretty quickly. Not only is Clooney as bankable as anyone else who could conceivably play the part, but his reputation on the set is about as good as it gets.

It's one of those obvious decisions you just never see. Last year, when all this talk started up, nobody mentioned Clooney. Perhaps the thought was they'd reboot and show a younger Jack Ryan. If not, this has to be the way to go.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | CommentPost a Comment |

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