Jack Ryan will return, with Kenneth Branagh directing

Will Perkins
·Blogger

When director Jack Bender ("Lost") abruptly left Paramount's untitled Jack Ryan film earlier this month, fans of the Tom Clancy character began to wonder if they'd ever see the CIA agent back in action. Well, fictional terrorists beware, because Oscar-nominated actor and "Thor" director Kenneth Branagh is now reportedly in talks to helm the long-gestating spy thriller.

"Star Trek" actor Chris Pine remains attached to play CIA analyst Ryan, a character who, despite being essentially a pencil pusher and bureaucrat, always finds himself embroiled in some nefarious international plot. No plot details are available from the still-untitled film, but there are a total of 13 Tom Clancy books that feature the character -- four of which have already been adapted into movies.

On the big screen, the Ryan character was made famous by Harrison Ford, who played the analyst in 1992's "Patriot Games" and 1994's "Clear and Present Danger," both directed by spy movie vet Phillip Noyce ("Salt"). However, Ford was not the first actor to play the character on the big screen.

Alec Baldwin played Ryan in 1990's "The Hunt for Red October" opposite a Scottish-accented Russian sub commander played by Sean Connery. The most recent cinematic adventure for the character was 2003's "The Sum of All Fears," in which Ben Affleck played a brash, younger version of Ryan out to save the world from nuclear war.

Pine should be a good fit for the Affleck-style version of the character, while Branagh proved with "Thor" that he is more than up to the task of directing a big-budget film with a lot of action. These Clancy stories are nothing like "Hamlet," but as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Branagh is sure to lend the film some class.

Paramount has fast-tracked the next Jack Ryan movie to start filming as soon as Pine wraps up "Star Trek 2."

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