Tradecraft: Christopher McQuarrie Feels No Remorse

No, I don't mean that Christopher McQuarrie feels no remorse about casting Tom Cruise as the 6'5" Jack Reacher in the eponymous film version of Lee Child's popular hero (though he doesn't seem to); I mean that, according to Deadline, the Usual Suspects scribe has been hired by Paramount to take a crack at adapting Tom Clancy's seemingly uncrackable 1993 novel Without Remorse. This one's been in development for nearly twenty years now, with Shawn Ryan most recently givng it a go a few years ago. It's not clear if McQuarrie will rewrite Ryan's draft (which was said to be good), or start from scratch. McQuarrie will direct as well as write. Without Remorse follows Jack Ryan's "dark side" Mr. Clark (aka John Kelly) in his formative years during the Vietnam War on both a covert mission abroad and a personal vendetta in the United States. While McQuarrie's aesthetic would lend itself perfectly to a gritty 70s period piece, I doubt we'll see the studio go that direction. After all, they're rebooting the Jack Ryan franchise in a contemporary setting, so if they want to eventually integrate Clark into that series, it would behoove them to set this movie in the present as well.