In a new reboot of Tom Clancy’s action hero, Jack Ryan, Chris Pine has been signed onto star as Ryan, in a role previously held by Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin, and now Steven Zaillian has been signed onto to write the film’s screenplay. Jack Bender, one of the many directors on Lost, will helm the project.
The project, according to Deadline, is being referred to as Moscow (although this may not be the official title) and is not based on any source material written by Tom Clancy but an original work. The only details on any form of plot is that it will involve a helicopter crash but no details emerge from there. It could be a tight production schedule as Paramount will make sure that this and a Star Trek sequel won’t clash for Pine, even though they are planning to start up pretty close to one another.
Zaillian’s plate is also rather packed. He’s just penned The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo screenplay for David Fincher, and is currently signed on to produce one for the sequel: The Girl Who Played With Fire. He’s also written The Irishman for Martin Scorsese and he has an English-language remake of Timecrimes coming up. So a pretty busy time, but knowing this guy’s track record he can churn out pretty decent scripts with fearsome regularity.
Both guys are particularly suitable for this project, Pine has proved his worth as an action star and I think he has the weight to pull off the role. Zaillian also has some form in the area of Jack Ryan, back in 1994 he did an uncredited but huge rewrite on Patriot Games and wrote Clear and Present Danger. Production is hoping to begin later in the year for a 2012 release date.
