Jack’s Back: Raimi to Direct New Ryan Films

Get out of that Jack Ryan suit, Affleck, your replacement’s on deck. 

Remember Jack Ryan? Square-jawed, stoic, tough guy, action hero, CIA analyst who starred in a series of Tom Clancy books and movies where he saved America in a variety of ways? Gosh, somehow it seems so ’90s…

But wait! According to Variety, Paramount is ready to bring our man Jack back, with Sam Raimi taking over directorial duties for the franchise. Reportedly a screenplay will be written while Raimi works on Drag Me to Hell, so he’ll be set to shoot the first-next Ryan film for a summer 2010 release.

The plan is to show Ryan at “an earlier, more formative point in his career. Yet one of the options described is to set the film in the present, with Ryan dealing with “action triggered by a global threat.” So he’ll be younger than he was in the earlier films…but it will take place in the present. Okay. Meanwhile, another option is for Paramount to hold out and just film the next Ryan book, which Clancy is currently writing. No word on whether that one is set in the past, present, or future. Whichever Paramount chooses, it looks like either time travel or a reliance on an audience’s willingness to suspend disbelief will be involved.

Who will play Ryan? Well, Alec Baldwin was up first, in 1990’s The Hunt for Red October. Then he bailed out of the next movie to do theater (he played Stanley in A Streetcar Named Desire, opposite Jessica Lange as Blanche. Brando’s legacy was not threatened), so Harrison Ford took over for Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). Next up was Ben Affleck in 2002’s The Sum of All Fears (yes, I know I’ve been saying “how ’90s” in reference to Jack Ryan, but a 2002 film was basically still a product of the previous decade).

So who’s up next? Name your CIA analyst action hero. I’m betting on Zac Efron.