Caffeinated Clint
Sam Raimi may be off the project (he was never officially attached anyway – but his company had expressed interest in developing a new set of movies based around the popular literary hero) but that’s not enough to deter Paramount from doing a new Jack Ryan film – nope they’ve just bought in some ‘old blood’ – including someone who has been associated with this particular film series from the start – to fuel the reboot. Even more, the new film is on the fast-track.
We checked in with a very solid source over there who tells us “Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld have been rehired by Paramount as producers on the franchise, with a mandate to come up with a Jack Ryan original ASAP. By Any Means Necessary has been abandoned as a potential new Ryan story.At present there are no director and no star attached.”
di Bonaventura, producer of “Transformers” and the upcoming “Beverly Hills Cop 4”, was involved in “By Any Means Necessary”, which at one stage was planned to be the next Ryan movie. That idea was abandoned when Raimi expressed interest in doing something with the character.
Neufeld has produced all of the past Ryan pics – all based on books by Tom Clancy – kicking off with 1990’s “The Hunt for Red October”. He hadn’t been involved in the development of the now-abandoned “By Any Means Necessary”.
We’re also informed that it’s still just as much a possibility that the film may feature an ‘older’ Ryan, as opposed to a younger version. It will all depend on the winning script. Personally, I’d love to see Harrison Ford return to the role - it’s one franchise character he’s never too old to play – and he’s shown interest in reprising the role (he played in “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger”) too. It’ll also be a much bigger project if Ford returns – – and no doubt, a much more successful film than what it’d be if it featured say, a young gun in the part (they’ve tried that – with the Ben Affleck-starring “The Sum of All Fears” – and it didn’t work).
Win-Win, I say.
