Oct 4, 2019

Tradecraft: Jamie Bell Joins Clancy Adaptation WITHOUT REMORSE

It looks like this time, Paramount's decades-held hopes of making a movie out of Tom Clancy's epic saga Without Remorse are really going to happen! Last month, Variety reported that Jamie Bell will join the previously announced Michael B. Jordan (playing frequent Clancy hero John Clark) in the movie from director Stefano Sollima (helmer of the very Clancy-esque Sicario: Day of the Soldado). Bell will play a familiar character from the Tom Clancy universe, CIA Deputy Director of Operations Robert Ritter. Henry Czerny memorably essayed the role in 1994's Clear and Present Danger, in which Willem Dafoe played Clark.

Today, several more actors joined the cast, making this Without Remorse more and more of a reality! (Forgive my incredulity. It's just hard to believe this movie is finally happening after literally decades of development!) Deadline reports that Luke Mitchell (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys For Life), Cam Gigandet (Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden), Jack Kesy (12 Strong), and Todd Lasance (Spartacus) are all signing on as members of Clark's SEAL team. Nearly all of them have played special forces operators before. Additionally, Jodie Turner-Smith (The Last Ship, The Neon Demon) has been cast as a potential love interest for Jordan.

According to the trade, "Without Remorse is the origin story of John Clark, played by Jordan, a Navy SEAL-turned-CIA ops officer, who seeks revenge after his girlfriend is killed by a Baltimore drug lord." That sounds more or less like the novel, so if this capsule summary comes from the studio (and not just a Deadline writer Wikipedia-ing the book), then perhaps we can expect a fairly faithful adaptation. What I'm guessing we won't get is a period piece. I doubt Clark will serve in Vietnam in this version; I suspect they'll make it contemporary. (This was the plan back when Tom Hardy was supposed to play Clark in a series intended to cross over with Chris Pine's intended Jack Ryan franchise.) Paramount are very eager to launch a new film franchise with this movie, already eyeing Clancy's Rainbow Six as a follow-up. Also unclear is whether there will be any crossover with Amazon's Jack Ryan TV series, which hails from the same producers. The Clark character has been kept out of that series so far because of the percolating film franchise, but that doesn't necessarily preclude a cameo from John Krasinski in Without Remorse....

Without Remorse is slated to open September 18, 2020.

4 comments:

teeritz said...

Funny, but I've always felt that Dafoe was wrongly cast as John Clark. If anything, based on the books and his very name (bland, common, etc), it seems to me that Henry Czerny fit the physical description of Clark a little better. If he were about twenty pounds lighter. Czerny looked the way I thought Clark should look; unmemorable, no distinguishing features, hard to describe to the authorities.
Mind you, I have "Rainbow Six", but have yet to read it. Could be that I'll change my mind once I have.
Michael B. Jordan sounds like a nice twist, especially if they're going with the ex-Special Forces angle.

Oh, and check the comments section of your "No Time To Die" post up above. Some jerk has been naughty.

teeritz said...

Based on Clancy's description of the character, I always felt that Henry Czerny himself was a better physical fit, even though he may have been 10 or 20 pounds out of shape for a CIA operative. However, had the right look; unmemorable, bland, and difficult to describe to the authorities. Dafoe was good, but seemed miscast.
Michael B. Jordan will be a nice twist on the character.

Oh, and I think somebody's been naughty in the comments section of your "No Time to Die" post up above.

teeritz said...

Dammit, please delete one of my comments. I didn't read the fine print about owner approval.
In my own defence, I'm a little tired right now. ;-)

Tanner said...

I don't know what's been going on with the comments, Teeritz. I've just discovered that a bunch of your very legit ones were caught in a spam folder (and released them) while those trollish ones you mention had not been caught! (I think I've found and deleted all those now.) I'm supposed to receive email alerts for all comments (needing moderation or otherwise, but that hasn't been happening. I'm sorry that a lot of yours hadn't gotten through. Now that I know this is happening, I'll stay on top of it more.

Hm, interesting idea about Czerny! I really do like him in the role he does play though. I didn't like Dafoe at the time the movie came out. He wasn't how I pictured Clark at all. But now I really appreciate him in that part. I'm keen to see what Jordan does with it though!