In a move that will undoubtedly garner loads of criticism from his die-hard fans (if such a thing exists), Hollywood Reporter states that the next movie about Jack Ryan, the CIA history analyst who eventually works his way up the ladder into being the President of the United States (um, oops, spoilers for Debt of Honor and Executive Decision), will not be based on any of creator Tom Clancy’s previous works and will instead be an original origin story drafted by screenwriter Hossein Amini.
Amini has some solid credits, having garnered an Oscar nomination for his 1997 screenplay adaptation of the Henry James novel The Wings of the Dove (which starred Helena Bonham Carter and Linus Roache), so it’s not like he doesn’t know how to be respectful of source material. He’s also had some recent successful screenplay sales with Shanghai (now in post-production, and starring John Cusack and Chow Yun Fat) and the in-production Hugh Jackman vehicle called Drive (no pun intended, really).
With a screenwriter in place, it’s now up to producers Mace Neufeld and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura to find a director after first choice Sam “I’ve been chained to Spider-Man” Raimi’s schedule became too busy to work around and to find a new, hot, young star to be the new Jack Ryan.
As one who devoured the novels after watching the first Jack Ryan film The Hunt for Red October, the trick to casting this part is to find someone who could embody everything that people love about the character. Jack Ryan is honest to a fault, believes the best of everyone until they fuck him over and then he is willing to annihilate them, and he thinks so far outside the box that he’s actually located on Alpha Centauri.
You also have to cast someone who’s believable as being someone who will eventually graduate college with a degree in economics and get a CPA license, become a lieutenant in the Marine Corps (medically discharged due to injuries sustained in a chopper crash during exercises), make $6 million on the stockmarket as a broker, get a doctorate in history, and teach history at Anapolis.
In other words, of all the actors out there today between the ages of 18 and 25, which of them could play a believable Mary Sue?
Gordon McAlpin says:
Two words: Shia LaBeouf.
Trisha Lynn says:
After scrutinizing his Wikipedia page, I am forced to admit you are correct.
Murphy says:
Unless he’s a lot older than I think, Ryan Gosling. And if he’s not Jack Ryan, then he’s definitely Captain America.