Tradecraft: Chris Pine Is The Latest "Next Jack Ryan"

Paramount remains adamant about rekindling the Jack Ryan franchise. Variety reports that the studio is in negotiations with Star Trek's Chris Pine to topline a new movie in the series based on Tom Clancy's CIA analyst character, played in the past by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. As previously rumored, the new project will not be based on any existing Clancy novel. Rather, the trade reports, "producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld are working with a script draft by [previously announced writer] Hossein Amini, based on an original concept." When would such a movie happen? Given the many, many false starts over the past few years (at one point The Constant Gardener's Fernando Meirelles was tipped to direct and more recently Sam Raimi was attached; everyone from Ford to Ryan Gosling has been rumored to star at one time or another), a skeptic would be forgiven for assuming "never." Variety's Michael Fleming, however, is slightly more upbeat, giving the vague timeframe, "they are still in deep development and it is unclear whether Pine would make another Star Trek before the Jack Ryan film." I thought Pine did an amazing job as Captain Kirk, and I'd love to see him topline a spy franchise, so hopefully the... (roughly) billionth time is the charm!