It’s often amazing how many writers studios feel the need to get through to put together a script for a major movie, as if purely by passing it through endless hands – all who have different strengths and sensibilities – they’ll eventually turn it into something worthwhile. They keep at it even though most people agree that such scripts tend to be incredibly weak hotch-potches.
For a couple of years now, Paramount has been trying to reboot the Jack Ryan franchise, attaching Chris Pine to play a young version of the character (previously portrayed by Alex Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck), with the film set during the character’s early days, before he became the CIA operative from the Tom Clancy novels.
Initially Hossein Azami wrote a script, then the studio abandoned that and instead decided to try and rework Adam Cozad’s spec script, Dubai, into a Jack Ryan flick that’s been referred to as Moscow. Anthony Peckham was brought in to do some work and now Deadline reports that Paramount has hired Steven Zaillian, (Schindler’s List, Mission: Impossible) to come in a do a draft, hopefully to tidy it up into something that’s ready to shoot. Zaillian has some Jack Ryan form, having scripted Clear And Present Danger and doing an uncredited pass on Patriot Games.
Little is known about the plot, as it’s an original tale and not based on a Clancy book, but apparently the lauching point for the film is mentioned in Hunt For Red October and ‘has to do with a terrifying helicopter crash that nearly killed Ryan when he was a 23-year old platoon leader in the US Marines. He was the only member of the platoon to survive.’
There have also been reports that the film will start out with him working on Wall Street, although it’s not known how that might link into a helicopter crash and him being a marine. Jack Bender will direct the movie, with production planned for later this year (hopefully once Pine has finished shooting the Star trek sequel).