Sam Raimi to Direct Jack Ryan Films

Jack Ryan is Back. And Sam Raimi is Pulling the Strings.

By Dustin Rowles | Posted Under Trade News | Comments (34)

It is official now: The Jack Ryan series will return to the big screen. In fact, Paramount Pictures is currently in negotiations with Sam Raimi to direct a series of Jack Ryan pics. The idea is to both set them in the modern day, but also feature a younger version of Jack Ryan (continuity, clearly, is not paramount here). One possible scenario, according to Variety, is to write a script where the “action is triggered by a global threat.” Really? A global threat in a Jack Ryan movie? That’s … novel. The studio, however, hasn’t decided yet if the movie will be based on one of Tom Clancy’s novels.

No word yet on who might be cast as the younger Jack Ryan, although I’m sure somebody will start a scurrilous rumor that Chris Pine is up for the part (yesterday, he was briefly rumored to be in the running for the role of The Green Hornet … and why not? You need a weak actor for a weak superhero). Besides, I thought that Ben Affleck was already the young Jack Ryan? Perhaps The Sum of All Fears is the Jack Ryan franchise’s version of Terminator 3: Didn’t exist.

Here’s an obvious thought: Ryan Gosling. Do it.

I like Raimi. A ton. But if screening of Drag Me To Hell we saw at SXSW is any indication, he really should stick to the fantastic comedy-horrors that made him who he is. Granted, there’s not as much money in it for him, but I’m really more concerned with our needs. With at least one more Spiderman on tap, and a series of Jack Ryan flicks, it may be a very long time before we get to see another wheelhouse Raimi flick. A fourth Evil Dead film, at least with Raimi at the helm, seems all but impossible now.

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Comments

*swoon*

That photo of Ryan Gosling just left me speechless. Jack Ryan who?

Posted by: io at March 20, 2009 12:04 PM

Aw, come on. Let's get someone I want to look at.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 12:08 PM

Good Godamighty Ryan Gosling does things to my loins that should be illegal without consent.

RAWWRRRRR!!!!

Posted by: AM at March 20, 2009 12:11 PM

The Chris Pine rumor's about Green Lantern though.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 12:11 PM

Yeah... Speaking of SXSW - aren't you gonna do a wackadoo retrospective on the events that went down? Yeah, Prisco dished some shit, but c'mon Rowles... WHAT THE HELL?! WHERE ARE THE PICTURES? THE TALES OF BATTERED-KNUCKLED BARFIGHTS AND SCANTILY CLAD HIPSTER SKIRMISHES?! WHAT JAIL'S STACEY HOLED UP IN? WHO FOUGHT KNOWLES? SHOW THE TATTOO! RABBLE, RABBLE, ECT, ETC...

Sorry. Winter doldrums and lack of any real "me" time have frazzled my usually pleasant demeanor. I apologize...

Posted by: Skitz at March 20, 2009 12:16 PM

So wispy and scraggly facial is attractive? Why must you confuse my follicles, Pajiba!?

Posted by: branded at March 20, 2009 12:18 PM

Facial hair! Facial hair I tell you!

Posted by: branded at March 20, 2009 12:20 PM

So wispy and scraggly facial is attractive?

Apparently it's scorching. Go figure! You, you look more like Hal Jordan, so I don't know how you managed to get married.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 12:22 PM

The rest of 'im's kinda wispy and scraggly too. Yep, natural heir to Jack Ryan.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 12:23 PM

So wispy and scraggly facial is attractive?

Not to everyone... Of course, I don't want to do him regardless of his follicular situation, and don't want to see Jack Ryan movies regardless of who's in them, so my opinion is pretty irrelevant here.

Posted by: SaBrina at March 20, 2009 12:39 PM

I don't even know why we're discussing this. You all know that the studio will hire Ryan Gosling, have a last minute creative difference, and rewrite the role as Jacquelyn Ryan, with Angelina Jolie to star.

And, of course, Paul Rudd will be involved, starring as a variation on his most famous character: Paul Rudd.

Posted by: The Pink Hulk at March 20, 2009 12:40 PM

Won't Angelina be busy playing Wonder Woman and Ms. Marvel though?

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 12:43 PM

And, of course, Paul Rudd will be involved, starring as a variation on his most famous character: Paul Rudd.

So, I guess it's not just me that thinks this?

Also, I shall be writing this date down as the first time I was ever first in a comment thread! How if I could only get a on a diversion thread before 500 posts...

Posted by: io at March 20, 2009 12:48 PM

Angelina will also be busy throwing Brad out for sleeping with the nanny, adopting the entire country of Zambia, mercilessly taunting Jennifer Aniston for discernable reason, getting Restylane injections, and possibly running for office. But, she'll find time, Jay, she'll find time.

And io, don't get me wrong. I love Paul Rudd as Paul Rudd. It makes him infinitely more fuckable to me than if he was stretching it to play some other character, likely very poorly.

Posted by: The Pink Hulk at March 20, 2009 12:53 PM

So wispy and scraggly facial is attractive?

Only in combination with a receding hairline. It looks like Gosling has grown his first pubic beard at age 30.

Posted by: admin at March 20, 2009 1:03 PM

Aw, come on. Let's get someone I want to look at.

We FINALLY agree on something, Jay. What a momentous occasion!

Hmm. Why can I never spell "occasion" right the first time. Stupid word.

Posted by: figgy at March 20, 2009 1:33 PM

Everything's eventual, as they say.

So who is today's Harrison/Alec (don't say Nathan, I want you all to think hard)?

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 1:35 PM

Jon Hamm?

He's got that sexy/scruffy look down, and I'm sure he could play a badass if he wanted to.

But if they're really looking for someone younger...um...man, why is every young actor I can think of also a douche?

Posted by: figgy at March 20, 2009 1:42 PM

But I want him to be Hal Jordan!

(I have no opinion on Chris Pine yet, we'll see what happens after "Star Trek")

And of course Jack Ryan wasn't doing anything exciting prior to "The Hunt For Red October" so, yeah...I guess it could be like Ultimate Jack Ryan. But I don't know who'd fit it either. I'm hoping someone's got a brilliant idea.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 1:47 PM

Great. Now I'm picturing Jon Hamm in spandex and...yep, there goes my productivity.

Posted by: figgy at March 20, 2009 1:56 PM

http://www.alexrossart.com/galleries/liberty/full/4-5.jpg

As Marky Mark said: Can you feel it? I can too.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 2:05 PM

Damn.

Daaaamn.

I can feel it all over.

You just do this to torture me, don't you?

Posted by: figgy at March 20, 2009 2:07 PM

Oh, heavens no, this is all about sharing the love.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 2:09 PM

"But if screening of Drag Me To Hell we saw at SXSW ..."
---
Blah blah blah when we were at SXSW blah blah blah

I WARNED you people we were going to be reading smug (bahahahahahaha we were there and you weren't bahahahahhahah we could afford to go and you couldn't bahahahahahahaha we were getting plastered and watching movies while you had to work) shit like this for -- what's the over, 134 years? -- for the next 135 years.

Skitz, I wouldn't 'spect an answer to that, nobody answered my question about hookups and Pajibabies. And besides, you trust them not to just make shit up? "4 a.m. ... astounding amounts to drink ... woke up in jail with my pants on my head ..."

Right, right. Remember, Skitz, my friend, there are aspiring screenwriters among our comrades here, they'll make two Shirley Temples and bed (alone) by 8:30 sound like a night out in Vegas with LiLo, Paris and Brit.

Posted by: bucdaddy at March 20, 2009 2:13 PM

That is some good, good love to share.

Posted by: figgy at March 20, 2009 2:21 PM

You, you look more like Hal Jordan, so I don't know how you managed to get married.

I take that as one of the highest of compliments and am grateful, Jay. The answer is that my wife met me in college, when I was rarely shaven.

Posted by: branded at March 20, 2009 2:41 PM

when I was rarely shaven.

Ahhh, shrewdly played.

Hey, he's a good lookin guy, ladies.

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 2:46 PM

Aww, dammit. I read that headline as "Jake Ryan is Back" and now must suffer in extreme disappointment.

So not cool.

Posted by: agent bedhead at March 20, 2009 3:15 PM

"Goddammit, I cannot stand to make one more fucking chair!!! What the fuck am I doing in this barn??? Where the fuck's my Porsche???? I'm comin back!!!"

Posted by: Jay at March 20, 2009 3:17 PM

lack of any real "me" time
Posted by: Skitz at March 20, 2009 12:16 PM

DUDE, have you no feelings? Shouldn't it be "we" time. Poor Wendel. That poor parasitic sambitch.

Posted by: Lainey at March 20, 2009 3:38 PM

I see Chris Pine as a pretty fit choice for GL. I think he could pull off the little domino mask look. It'd have to a CGI Extravaganza. Who could direct a proper Green Lantern flick? Del Toro?

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at March 20, 2009 3:59 PM

maybe if Raimi teamed up with the Coens his Jack Ryan films wouldn't be too bad? they've worked together in the past.

Posted by: chalupa at March 20, 2009 4:03 PM

I know this is way late...but what movie is there to do?

I love the novels and they each build on one another. None would work without the other. Clear and Present Danger, the movie, killed off characters that are still alive as of his last Ryan book. Again, I love the books but no movie would work as a stand alone, with the exception of Teeth of the Tiger, and you would need Ford playing an older Jack Ryan in a cameo form.

Posted by: richmac at March 23, 2009 10:03 AM

I Have been stalking this site for a few hrs.I found out about it from SXSW and I Love this shit. Keep up the great work.

And Fuck my anus Sam Raimi is past his prime.

Posted by: ratmdex at March 23, 2009 3:25 PM

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Jack Ryan is Back. And Sam Raimi is Pulling the Strings.

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