By I’m excited to report that the Christ Pine-starring Jack Ryan reboot from Paramount may finally be back on track. Having recently lost director Jack Bender, the studio has tapped Thor director and Dutch angle-enthusiast Kenneth Branagh to direct the film. Additionally, Branagh is in talks to play Viktor Stazov, the film’s central villain with a plot to destroy the US economy. The film has spent some time languishing in development hell due to conflicting desires for the tone of the film between Chris Pine, the producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Paramount itself, though perhaps Branagh’s presence will help to unify those.
I’m torn on this. I really love all the Jack Ryan movies, even The Sum of All Fears which had the handicap of releasing when it was cool to hate Ben Affleck, and I really like Chris Pine as a new Jack Ryan. That said, I’ve never really liked Branagh as a director. As an actor, he’s good when someone bothers to reel him in, but I think he directs everything like theater, very over the top and playing to the rafters. Here’s hoping that works better for Jack Ryan than it did for Thor.
[Via /Film]