Will Clooney get Jack?

Last week, “Transformers” Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Moviehole he was toying with the idea of bringing back Tom Clancy’s literary super-analyst Jack Ryan – the suit-and-tie wearing crusader played by Alec Baldwin in “The Hunt for Red October”, Harrison Ford in both “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger”, and more recently, Ben Affleck in “The Sum Of All Fears” – to our screens (he’s been toying with the idea for a couple of years now – at one stage even hiring Sam Raimi to relaunch the franchise). According to di Bonaventura, they’re looking at going “younger” (well, younger than Harrison Ford anyway), in relation to the lead role, which means there’s likely something in those rumours that had Aaron Eckhart and Ryan Gosling under consideration.

But can George Clooney get producers di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld to think, er, slightly older? Might they even consider traveling down the whole ‘Ryan as President’ route if they were able to get a star as big as Clooney onboard this new film?

The Daily Beast is reporting (and nice spot, /film!) that Clooney’s interested in playing Ryan if and when the series gets back. News that’s sure to excite Hossein Amini whose currently writing the new film – and his agent has confirmed he’s still got the job – no doubt with a ‘young Ryan’ in mind.

You know what I think they should do? Call me crazy, but I really believe they should get Alec Baldwin back. In my opinion he was the best incarnation of Clancy’s Ryan. He also starred in the best film adaptation of a Clancy book. I’m sure enough time has passed that Baldwin and the producers/studio can forget about the kerfuffle they had over “Patriot Games” (Baldwin passed, much to their disgust) and make a damn good ‘Baldwin as old Ryan’ flick . And the actor – thanks to “30 Rock” – is quite the name again, so there shouldn’t be a problem getting bums on seats. Lorenzo, if you’re listening, please consider this.