Tom Clancy Novel's turned movies

**American Patriot** · September 7th, 2012, 16:04

'Jack Ryan' and Friends: First Look at Kevin Costner as a CIA Master

Monday, 03 September 2012 09:32 Written by Jordan DeSaulnier

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions really, really want you to know that, after a lot of time spent getting a script that was up to snuff, Jack Ryan is now shooting in Manhattan. On Friday, an official publicity still showed Chris Pine in action as the rebooted hero of many an espionage novel and movie. In order to be absolutely certain that we're all clear on the fact that Jack Ryan is definitely, for sure happening right now, we have another image, aagain featuring Pine, this time in the company of Kevin Costner.

Costner is playing Kevin Harper here. Harper is a renowned CIA operative with nigh-unlimited skills in the dark arts of intelligence gathering and black ops.
Costner, who also appears as Jonathan Kent in next year's Man of Steel, is signed on to play Harper not only in Jack Ryan, but also in a shared-universe spin-off entitled Without Remorse. The Way of the Gun and Jack Reacher director Christopher McQuarrie is attached to direct that thriller, and Paramount is apparently keen on Pine's This Means War co-star Tom Hardy to play the protagonist. Given the success of Marvel's interconnected onscreen universe, expect to see a lot of studios attempting franchise cross-pollination like this.

Pine is the fourth actor to take on Ryan, novelist Tom Clancy's regular hero who eventually becomes president of these United States. In 2002, Paramount attempted to prequelize the character with The Sum of All Fears, in which a young Ryan was played by Ben Affleck. Prior to that, the character was played by Harrison Ford in both Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. Alec Baldwin was the first cinematic Jack Ryan, however, starring in John McTeirnan's The Hunt for Red October.
The story here finds ex-Marine pre-CIA Ryan working as a hotshot financial analyst in Moscow, Russia. Life is all good until Ryan discovers that his boss is funding a terrorist effort that is but on component of a plan to hobble the U.S. economy. Presumably, Harper comes to Ryan's aid as the hero gets done some derring-do.
Keira Knightley is playing Ryan's wife, while Kenneth Branagh is portraying the bad guy. Not coincidentally, Branagh's collected two paychecks, since he's directing Jack Ryan.
The film is scheduled to arrive in theaters on December 25, 2013.