There’s a new Jack Ryan in town – Captain Chris Pine Kirk – and he’s having all new adventures. Talking to the press today about Invictus, producer Mace Neufeld said that the next Ryan film will be an all-original story, based on none of the previous Tom Clancy books.
But here’s where I get confused. The reporting at Coming Soon says that this reboot will not be an origin story, yet they have Neufeld quoted as saying:
“We pick him up when he’s on Wall Street.”
Readers of the book know that this is flat out prequel territory, as the first Jack Ryan story, Patriot Games, takes place after Jack has left Wall Street to be a CIA consultant. In fact, putting Ryan on Wall Street (well, in Baltimore working for a Wall Street firm, at least in the books), means that this next Ryan film would be taking place even earlier in the guy’s career than the previous reboot/origin story Sum of All Fears.
Neufeld then went on to warn folks that this won’t be a blow-em-up movie. “The Jack Ryan movies have never been action films. They’re kind of ‘thinking man’s thrillers.’ Jack is referred to as a ‘water-walker’ because of his ability to jump ahead to conclusions. That’s very big in all the Jack Ryan films and that’s how we want to portray him. He’s a teacher. He’s a historian. He’s a linguist. And he’s really smart.”
I’m a fan of the early Jack Ryan books (before Clancy went insane, made Ryan president and then created the evil version of The West Wing), and I think the character is terrific cinematically. I’m interested in seeing where the fourth Jack Ryan ends up.