… the Old Man last night and guess what?

He’s almost finished it, which is pretty good going by anyone’s standards.

Interesting. Earlier this year when I offered him Lean Mean Thirteen to read he turned his nose up. Maybe it was the lurid pink and yellow cover. Or the fact that it’s written by a woman! Or he didn’t like the first few pages …

Or maybe it’s the fact that One For the Money reads more like a novel than another installment in a franchise. It’s certainly a big departure from my Dad’s usual diet of Jack Higgins, Gerald Seymore, Tom Clancy, Andy McNab, Chris Ryan and Lee Child. Great writers as those all are.

Glad he loved it so much. Another convert to the tribe of Evanovich!

I stayed up too late last night finishing a book. Both Mrs. Poolman and I read for pleasure, she more than I. Mrs. P can knock of a standard paperback book in a single off day.

The book I was reading, The Time Traveler’s Wife, was not my typical fare. I tend to lean more towards action fiction and historical non-fiction. I enjoy authors like John Sandford, James Patterson, W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell. I also have a spot in my heart for Andrew Greely. On the non-fiction side, I consume history, especially military history. And if it flies and shoots, I’m all over it.

All of that is just a way of setting up that I really enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife. I have always been intrigued with the fictional treatments of time travel, starting with HG Wells’ The Time Machine and working on up through Michael Crichton’s Timeline (another really outstanding time-travel book, by the way). Before reading it,  I suspected The Time Traveler’s Wife was a literary version of a “chick flick.” You know what I mean – a movie that deals mostly with relationships and emotions and one of the endearing characters dies at the end, usually of a long lingering illness. (See Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment, Fried Green Tomatoes, and others.) While The Time Traveler’s Wife does have many of those characteristics (I won’t spoil it by being more specific.) those are balanced out by the fact that it is still an interesting, well written story that moves along.

The story is about Henry and Clare. Henry has a genetic abnormality that causes him to involuntarily travel in time. One moment he is here, and the next, he is stark naked in another place and time. The author, Audrey Niffengger, avoids the cliché of many time-travel authors by not inserting her  character into any historical settings. This is not a story in which the protagonist performs any great or historical acts. Henry’s time travels are much more personal.

Very early on, Henry and Clare meet. Clare is a stranger to Henry, but Clare has known Henry all her life. An older Henry was repeatedly transported back in time to Clare’s childhood. So when they meet, Henry is Clare’s long-time visitor and friend, while Henry has yet to meet Clare in his “real life.” The book develops their relationship, more or less following the chronological pace of Henry’s “real life.” There are lots of adventures and a couple of mysteries.

All told, it was a good book and I’m really glad I read it. It is definitely worth the effort. We didn’t see the movie when it was at the theaters. I’m looking forward to it’s release on DVD in a few months.

Olá para todos, em homenagem à apresentação da Esquadrilha da Fumaça na minha cidade na semana passada, aqui está uma análise do jogo de jatos de caça, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Aproveitem.

E para a alegria de vocês, ainda vou colocar outro post aqui nesse fim-de-semana. Vejo vocês em breve!

According to Wikipedia:

Two of John F. Kennedy’s books were almost entirely ghostwritten. Former President Ronald Reagan also released a ghostwritten autobiography….

[T]he purported author of the Nancy Drew mystery series, “Carolyn Keene”, is actually a pseudonym for a series of ghostwriters who write books in the same style using a template of basic information about the book’s characters and their fictional universe (names, dates, speech patterns), and about the tone and style that are expected in the book….

The estate of romance novelist V. C. Andrews hired a ghostwriter to continue writing novels after her death, under her name and in a similar style to her original works. Many of action writer Tom Clancy’s books from the 2000s bear the names of two people on their covers, with Clancy’s name in larger print and the other author’s name in smaller print. Various books bearing Clancy’s name were written by different authors under the same pseudonym. The first two books in the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell franchise were written by Raymond Benson under the pseudonym David Michaels.

Sometimes famous authors will ghostwrite for other celebrities as well, such as when H.P. Lovecraft ghostwrote science fiction stories for Harry Houdini in science fiction magazines in the 1920s….

A number of papal encyclicals have been written by ghostwriters. Pascendi, for instance, was written by Joseph Lemius (1860-1923), the procurator in Rome of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

In June 1938, Pius XI summoned American Jesuit John La Farge, who began to prepare a draft of Humani Generis Unitas, which LaFarge and two other Jesuits—Gustav Gundlach and Gustave Desbuquois—on in Paris; the draft was approximately 100 pages long. Another Jesuit translated the draft encyclical into Latin, presenting it to Vladimir Ledochowski, then the General of the Society of Jesus who had chosen Gundlach and Desbuquois for the project. The draft encyclical was delivered to the Vatican in September 1938.

Sebastian Tromp, a Dutch Jesuit, a solid Thomist theologian and close to Pope Pius XII, is considered to be the main ghost writer of Mystici Corporis. As advisor to Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani during Vatican II, he is, according to existing tape recordings and diaries, also the father of “subsistit”, which to his understanding of Latin, did not mean anything new but indicates completeness….

In hip-hop music, the increasing use of ghostwriters by high-profile hip-hop stars has led to controversy, because “Rapping is about you expressing yourself through your own words, not someone else’s.” Eye Weekly reported that MC Rhymefest did ghostwriting for Kanye West and Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Texan rapper The D.O.C. did ghostwriting for Dr. Dre, and Jadakiss did ghostwriting for Puffy, who later bragged “Don’t worry if I write rhymes, I write checks.”

Other famous ghost writers include:

I know, I know. It’s been awhile. No excuses — I simply haven’t felt like writing, not even to finish up the promised series on writing influences. But it’s going to get better from here on out. Seriously. No, I promise.

So, for authors I consider the literary equivalent of Eli Wallach … I don’t even know how to explain what I mean. I guess I consider their work the equivalent of the stuff you see when you change a newborn’s diaper. And yet many of them have an incredible literary reputation. Take Herman Melville for instance. The only thing Melville ever wrote that was worth a damn was Bartleby the Scrivener. Moby Dick has one great line: “Call me Ishmael.” The rest of it is a great story marred by lackluster writing — details dry enough to be a technical paper on how a whaling ship works, but of little damn interest to most readers. Melville, along with guys like Tom Clancy, are the kind of writers that when you ask what time it is, they tell you how to build a wristwatch.

And what about J.D. Salinger? I’ve read The Catcher in the Rye and several short pieces by Salinger, and I’m one of those people who is simply not impressed. Maybe it’s because I re-read the book as an adult, but the teen angst Salinger portrays had little to do with what I felt as a teenager. It’s essentially a meaningless trifle — and I’m not really sure why it’s meant to be read as so much more.

So there are three — and there are many more to choose from. The Ugly authors are ones who, no matter how successful, remind me that bad writing knows no bounds — not even fame or fortune. And especially not the boundaries of literary critics, scholars or classrooms.

NO PEOPLE LIKE SHOW PEOPLE: British-born screen siren Jacqueline Bisset, who mastered an American accent to become a Hollywood star,

BISSET: Italian accent

apparently employs a killer Italian accent to play an over-the-hill actress in director Linda Yellen’s reportedly wicked satire The Last Film Festival. The beauteous Ms Bisset plays one of a group of misbegotten, narcissistic actors attending a third-rate movie festival in middle America. Also along for the free booze and tacky gift bags: Dennis Hopper, JoBeth Williams, Chris Kattan and LeeLee Sobieski … and Chris Pine, so good as the young Captain Kirk in this year’s Star Trek prequel,

PINE: from Art to Jack?

will go from co-starring with Denzel Washington in Ridley Scott’s Unstoppable to playing notorious counterfeiter Art Williams in The Art of Making Money. And while he’s shooting that one, Paramount Pictures will be negotiating with him to follow in the footsteps of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck and play CIA analyst Jack Ryan in a new series of thrillers based on Tom Clancy novels. Don’t know ‘bout you, but I’d say he’s definitely doing something right.

IF YOU CAN’T SAY SOMETHING NICE, SIT BY ME: My Manhattan hero, gossip girl Liz Smith, constantly rises to the defense of such loose cannons as Whitney Houston and Lindsay

LOHAN: parent trap?

Lohan in her on-line column at wowOwow.com. Given a chance, Liz will always take the high road; she’d far rather praise showbiz Caesars than bury them. But after the Jon & Kate Gosselin debacle escalated last week, she could no longer contain herself. “In the years that the show Jon & Kate Plus 8 has been inflicted on America,” she writes, “Kate has revealed herself as a steely-eyed control freak with high ambitions for a life outside of her home – she wants to be a star, a talk-show hostess. Jon, her hubby, is an overweight, dim, resentful sad sack with a spine of jelly. He’s the type who could turn any woman into a shrew. He has ambitions too. He wants to party with ladies who haven’t given birth to eight children and who don’t correct him every five minutes.” Who’s to blame? Liz lays some of that guilt on “the once-respectable Learning Channel (who) put these deadbeats on the air.”

SMITH: no deadbeats, please

Who’s worse? In Liz’s view, the Gosselins come a close second to Lindsay Lohan’s parents, Dina & Michael Lohan. “What a pair!” she sighs. “Daddy Michael was in trouble with the law for a long time – stock fraud, for which he was jailed four years, probation violation (more jail), violating a court order to stay away from his children (and still more jail time!). He is afflicted with terminal verbal diarrhea, and can’t-stay-away-from-the-camera-itis. Almost always he is talking about his famous daughter.” Lindsay’s mother Dina, she says, “is a ferociously taut, blonde Mama Rose, who saw a moneymaking ‘Gypsy’ in the talented Lindsay. She has lived and partied vicariously through – and sometimes

RAGTIME: back on Broadway

with – her daughter, existing in a heightened state of denial.” Says Liz: “How cruelly ironic that Lindsay came to fame in a movie titled The Parent Trap.” And then tops herself by adding what she calls a “Totally Predictable P.S.– Michael Lohan and Jon Gosselin are new best friends.”

BACK ON BROADWAY: It was one of the greatest opening nights of the ’90s — first in Toronto, and then in New York  Thirteen tumultuous years later, previews of the retooled revival of Ragtime, a new production that won cheers when it premiered at the Kennedy Centre in Washington, start tonight at the Neil Simon Theatre. The opulent period piece, set to open on Broadway Nov. 15, is already causing mucho buzz in the theatre district. For one thing, it’s been quite a while since recession-struck New Yorkers saw a dramatic musical with a cast of 40 backed by a 28-piece orchestra. For another, the man who started it all, Garth Drabinsky, the driving force behind its creation, won’t be there to herald its return. It was seven years ago yesterday when Drabinsky was arrested and charged with fraud, and the real-life drama in which he’s currently starring makes it impossible for him to go to New York without risking arrest and imprisonment. But the show must go on. And it will — without Garth.

MAPLE LEAF JOKES? WE’VE GOT A MILLION OF ‘EM!:

Q: What do you call 30 millionaires around a TV watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs?
A. The Toronto Maple Leafs.

Have a great weekend!

-/-

Recently, after several phone calls and emails, the boys of raannt were able to get a few moments with the Douche Slayer, from IndyDouchebags.com to ask him a few questions. Here’s what we found out…

1. What name would you like us to use for the interview?
Douche Slayer will suffice.

2. What is exactly is the job description for a “douche slayer”?
I slay douches.

3. What is a movie that has greatly impacted your life?
Richard Pryor: Live at the Terrace Theater in Long Beach, CA.

4. A song you want played at your funeral?
The theme from the A Team.

5. The doucheiest place in Indy?
It’s close, but the ass clown promoters at BLU give it the edge.

6. Are douche bags born or made?
Researchers at Harvard are close to isolating the Ed Hardy gene, which may change our understanding of these poor creatures. But right now, absent concrete, empirical evidence, I would have to say that they are made.

7. If you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life and it couldn’t be a mixed CD, what would it be?
TOOL: Aenima.

8. What is the last book you read and what are you currently reading, if any?
Tom Clancy’s, The Bear and the Dragon (for the 10th time)

9. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being extremely douchey, how douchey are the boys of raannt?
0. They are too comfortable in their own skin to be douche bags.

10. What are your plans for Halloween and will you be wearing a costume?
I am going out as a douche bag. Ed Hardy, stunna shades, dog tags, forearm sweatbands, cocked ball cap and all. Then i am going to come home and shower for a day or so…

11. What was your favorite television show when you were growing up?
Cheers.

12. Any background information you want to supply us?
My writing paints an accurate picture of my psyche. The Douche Slayer is a pseudonym, not a character. It is me.

13. You said on an interview with Kim Iverson that you would not be anonymous for much longer…is that still the case, and why?
I have revealed myself to my victims so that they might seek proper retribution. In true douche bag form, they don’t. Woof, woof, little doggie…

14. Favorite Drink?
Newcastle.

15. Sexiest place in the world?
Pamplona during San Fermin (Running With the Bulls). It oozes testosterone, adrenaline and sex.

16. Most un-douchey place in Indy?
Slippery Noodle.

17. Who are three local celebrities you actually find somewhat interesting?
Pass.

18. What did you want to be when you were 16?
A breast.

19. If someone were really looking for you in public, what would be a sure tell sign of how to find you, without completely giving it away?
A trail of slayed douches in my wake.

20. Long or short showers?
Baths.

21. Boxers, Briefs, Jockstrap, Nothing…Bra?…
Commando. I haven’t owned any draws since i was 18.

Thanks Mr. Douche Slayer…Talk to you soon!
For more information, visit his site and see just exactly who are the Douche Bags of Indy!!! IndyDouchebags.com.

Eyes Open, We’re Watching!

Ubisoft have confirmed that another Ghost Recon game is in the works but they haven’t gave us any details what so ever. No name, no release date, no teaser, no screenshots, no nothing. The Austrailian rating site, however has recently listed Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Predator as an MA15+ which suggests that this could be the latest addition to the Ghost Recon series.

The OFLC listing for the game states that it is multi-platform which isn’t much of a surprise and also says it contains strong violence, which again isn’t unexpected. This isn’t a confirmation of a new Ghost Recon game but it the rating sites are normally correct anyway.

About a quarter of the way through my life’s journey (if I live to be  a hundred that is), I realized that certain books that bear re-reading every couple of years, others may be  drop-kicked towards the nearest church rummage sale once one has finished with it (see Clancy, Tom) while others should be avoided at all costs (see Brown, Daniel).  I am not trying to put down Mr. Clancy (Mr. Brown on the other hand … ) but some books are cheeseburgers and some are Steak au Poivre.  I like cheeseburgers, but I don’t recall the first time I had one but I do remember, with relish, the first steak au poivre.

I remember it so well that, the next time I ate it, I had decided to order it so that I could relive the first time all over again.  As it turned out, it wasn’t the same; it had the same seasoning, ingredients and preparation but I noticed different aspects of it.  It was an equally enjoyable dish, but it was different in tiny indescribable ways.

How does this relate to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings?  LoTR (as the dorks call it) is Steak au Poivre.  I’m re-reading it and it is fabulous.  But fabulous in a way that I had never noticed when I was 10 years old.  At 10, I was frightened by the Ring Wraiths, awestruck by Gandalf and so many more things that I can’t give words to or fully remember.  However, reading it again as an adult I notice how wonderfully “homely” the hobbits are.  I love the way that, left to their own devices, they would be content to work in their fields, drink beer, and smoke pipes.

Another thing that caught my eye was the Riddle of Aragorn:

All that is gold does not glitter,

Not all those who wander are lost;

The old that is strong does not wither,

Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,

A light from the shadows shall spring;

Renewed shall be blade that was broken,

The crownless again shall be king.

Not the greatest lines of verse ever written but one gets a thrill when Bilbo recites them at Rivendell in the firelight.  In two compact stanzas, Tolkien summarizes the epic.  Anyways, if you haven’t already read this wonderful tome, pick it up now.

My two favorite quotes of the day:

“Having a free online ‘printing press’ doesn’t turn you into a journalist anymore than your laser printer did.”

and

“Citizen journalists are almost as good as citizen dentists.”

…both come from a funny little thing here about “saving journalism,” and while I don’t fully agree with the criticism of bloggers/blogging/bloggery, I do find it funny. Personally, an insecure girl in middle America who takes naughty photos of herself and writes online about her secret fantasies and finds that her medium is the internet, not verbal communication with the “real world,” is just as worthy of internetting as a licensed and certifiable hipster who writes about bands that have more novelty value than listenability. But everything is different for everyone and the world/the internet/reality is a big enough sandbox for all. If you read the internet, read what you read. If you write on the internet, write what you write. Journalism will live or die as it needs to.

Though that “citizen dentists” line is still hilarious to me, sorry.

You know, I pretty much slept through the entire balloon boy story today, but it sounds like it was really interesting for a few minutes. Like a childhood fantasy gone crraazzzy. For the kid, I mean. As a new story, it seems kind of annoying.

What Whoopi Goldberg, Harvey Weinstein, etc. are saying in their outrage over the arrest of Roman Polanski.

Oh, and following in the illustrious footsteps of Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and… Ben Affleck, the new Captain Kirk is Jack Ryan.

from here.

I am sure the methods that Sam Fisher uses in the latest Splinter Cell Conviction gameplay trailer is not approved by Amnesty International, but I doubt anyone who has been following this games development really cares. In the latest gameplay trailer Dean Evan’s the games lead designer takes us through the game as the rogue agent Sam Fisher stabs a terrorist in the hand in a torture scene that would make Jack Bauer from the TV show 24 feel right at home. I am seriously looking forward to Splinter Cell Conviction, and I was pretty miffed to hear that it got delayed till next year. But judging from the latest video released on Youtube it will be worth the wait.

Well, I’m going. I’d see any film with Chris Pine. Hell, I’d watch that man make toast.

He’s got the moves, though with these looks…could we see our first non-English Bond? Ok, so it’s not likely, but damn, the man looks good in a suit.

Jack Ryan, who I guess you could call the American Bond, has been portrayed by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and more recently, Ben Affleck. Not technically a spy, Ryan is actually a “intelligence analyst” a very American term for…actually I’m not sure what Jack Ryan does, but scowling seems to be a big part of it. And have you seen Mr. Pine’s scowl? Shyeah. I’ll take two, thanks.

No word on when the film is set to debut, but I’d not be surprised if another Star Trek is in the can before Paramount turns to another franchise.

Even though it looks like an ad for a Tom Clancy-esque video game, this is actually part of the new press kit for Joint Task Force 2 (JTF2), Canada’s equivalent to the US Delta Force. Revealing more than ever before about their ultra-secret operation, the website even has a section devoted to dispelling JTF2 myths, e.g. you actually CAN have tattoos if you want to be a Canadian super-soldier (sign me up!). Anyway, the branding is kind of over the top (just like the current Canadian Forces recruitment drive), but it is definitely rad that we’re finally getting a look in to an organization that in the past has been more rumor than reality. Keep reading for more of the ads, and thanks to The Chairman for the tip.  

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O jovem ator Chris Pine está mesmo em alta em Hollwyood, depois de interpretar o Capitão Kirk em Star Terk, o ator está negociando com a Paramout, para interpretar o agente Jack Ryan, famoso persoangem dos livros de Tom Clancy.

O novo filme pretende dar um reboot na franquia e pela primeira vez o roteiro do filme não é baseado em nenhum livro de Tom Clancy. A trama foi escrita por Hossein Amini (Honra e Coragem).

Jack Ryan já foi interpretado por três atores diferentes no cinema, primeiro por Alec Baldwin em Caçada ao Outobro Vermelho (1990), depois por Harrison Ford em  Jogos Patríoticos (1992) e seu último interpréte foi Ben Affleck no filme A Soma de Todos os Medos (2002).

Tom Clancy é um excelente escrito e com certeza Jack Ryan é o seu melhor personagem, que rendeu três bons filmes e surpreedente até Ben Affleck conseguiu ficar bem no papel.

O filme ainda não tem cronograma e nem diretor.

]]> http://mkcspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/chris-pine-the-next-jack-ryan/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:35:11 +0000 MKC http://mkcspeaks.wordpress.com/2009/10/14/chris-pine-the-next-jack-ryan/

Chris Pine -- Image via Aceshowbiz.com

Source: Variety

Back in July 2009, it was announced that George Clooney would perhaps play the next Jack Ryan in the reboot of the franchise based on the Tom Clancy novels. Now according to Variety, Chris Pine (“Star Trek”) is in negotiations to play the next Jack Ryan.

Alec Baldwin was the first to portray Jack Ryan in “The Hunt for the Red October”. Harrison Ford took over for two films, “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger” and in an effort to relaunch the franchise, Ben Affleck took over the part in “The Sum of All Fears” (2002).

I can imagine that if Pine were cast as the next Jack Ryan, the franchise might take a similar approach as J.J. Abrams remake of “Star Trek” where the reboot would tell the story of how Jack Ryan became part of the CIA or rather events leading up to it.

Chris Pine is in negotiations to play Jack Ryan in a reboot of the Tom Clancy franchise.  He would become the fourth actor to play the role.  The character was originated by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October , taken over by Harrison Ford for Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, followed by Ben Affleck in Sum of All Fears.

Pine, who impressed audiences with his aggressive, nervy take on Captain Kirk in last summer’s Star Trek, seems a good choice for the role.

Who’s you’re favorite Jack Ryan?  We have to go with Baldwin who had the right mix of intelligence and action hero abilities.  He also had the benefit of being in the best film of the series.

Tom Clancy is back and better then ever! How about that for a tagline? Well for the reboot of the Tom Clancy novels which feature his heroine Jack Ryan, Chris Pine will be helming the ship. This from our friends over at Variety:

Variety reports that Pine is in serious negotiations to step into the role of CIA analyst Jack Ryan, in a reboot of the franchise based on Tom Clancy’s series of political-thriller novels. While talks have only recently begun, Paramount expects Pine to officially join the project as it comes to fruition. “The studio and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld are working with a script draft by Hossein Amini, based on an original concept.”

 Diretamente do elenco de Star Trek, Chris Pine, que interpretou o Capitão James T. Kirk, está cada vez mais em alta em Hollywood.

Agora, o ator está em negociações para protagonizar o personagem Jack Ryan.  A Paramount (também de Star Trek) e Pine estão se entendendo, segundo a Variety.

O novo filme em questão não será adaptada de nenhuma das história do autor do personagem da CIA, Tom Clancy. E sim, uma roteiro inédito escrito Hossein Amini.

Por enquanto ainda não existe um cronograma sobre o novo filme, bem como será para o ator coinciliar a agenda para estar na continuação de Star Trek. 2010 será de muito trabalho para Pine.

O personagem Jack Ryan já foi vivido nos cinemas por atores como: Alec Baldwin (Caçada ao Outubro Vermelho), Harrison Ford (Jogos Patrióticos e Perigo Real e Imediato) e Ben Affleck (A Soma de Todos os Medos).

Os rumores da volta do espião da CIA aos cinemas já vinham se arrastando desde o ano passado e finalmente começam ser levados adiante. Espionagem como franquias de sucesso estão voltaando a pauta também. Depois do sucesso de Jason Bourne, 007 renasceu. Veremos o que virá.

Guilherme Jr.

Paramount Pictures is negotiating with Chris Pine to play CIA analyst Jack Ryan in the reboot of the franchise based on the Tom Clancy novels according to Variety.

Pine is positioned to topline his second Par franchise. He played James T. Kirk in “Star Trek,” the J.J. Abrams-directed summer hit, and will reprise the role in the sequel.

Pine is separately in talks to team with director D.J. Caruso in the Paramount drama “The Art of Making Money,” early next year.

Talks have just started, but Pine is expected to come aboard the Jack Ryan film as the project is still taking shape. The studio and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld are working with a script draft by Hossein Amini, based on an original concept.

They are still in deep development and it is unclear whether Pine would make another “Star Trek” before the Jack Ryan film. He will clearly be working often for Paramount over the next several years.

Pine, currently starring with Denzel Washington in the Tony Scott-directed “Unstoppable” for Fox, is vying to be the fourth actor to play Ryan, the CIA analyst in the Par film series.

Alec Baldwin originated the character in 1990’s “The Hunt for Red October,” Harrison Ford played him in 1992’s “Patriot Games” and 1994’s “Clear and Present Danger,” and Ben Affleck played Ryan in 2002’s “The Sum of All Fears.”

Do you think Chris Pine would make a good Jack Ryan? Do you want to see that character on the big screen again?

Variety is reporting that Paramount is actively seeking to reboot the Jack Ryan franchise and in discussions with new acting sensation Chris Pine. Pine of course is the face of another of Paramount’s tent-pole franchises, Star Trek and recently breathed new life in the character of James Tiberius Kirk.

Jack Ryan is of course Tom Clancy’s main protagonist and has appeared in 12 of the best-selling authors novels. Previous screen outings have seen Alec Baldwin (The Hunt for Red October), Harrison Ford (Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger) and most recently Ben Affleck (The Sum of All Fears) take up the role. My personal favourite is Ford in Clear and Present Danger but I thought that Affleck was more than adequate in the underrated The Sum of All Fears. Recent names linked with the role have included Ford again, Ryan Gosling and George Clooney.

I think younger is good if they’re going back to his earlier days but that Ford would be perfect for Debt of Honour and Executive Orders, novels in which Ryan is pushed to the forefront of political life. Apparently the next movie will not be based on one of Tom Clancy’s works but rather an original story and script is being worked on. No word on potential directors or start dates but I would love to see Liev Schreiber back as John Clark and perhaps in the directors chair too. His adaptation of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Everything Is Illuminated showed great potential.