Sam Raimi to Revive Jack Ryan
March 19, 2008

How many Jack Ryan's does it take to keep a franchise alive? Better yet, how many directors does it take to continue Tom Clancy's legacy on the big screen? After four hugely successful films based on the exploits of CIA analyst Jack Ryan, Variety reports that Spider-Man director Sam Raimi is in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to bring Jack Ryan back to the big screen in a series of movies to be produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Josh Donen of Buckaroo Entertainment, with the first film to be released in the summer of 2010.

In an obvious attempt to introduce the Ryan character to a new genration of moviegoers, Variety goes on to reveal that Jack Ryan might be a little more green than what we've seen in the past, as the stories could be "featuring Ryan at a younger, more formative point in his career than previously depicted. One invention the studio is considering is to set the film in the present, with the action triggered by a global threat." The report also goes on the reveal that Raimi was drawn to the project because he has a love for the Jack Ryan character.

Currently no writers have been found for the project, but since Raimi still needs to complete directorial duties on the horror film Drag Me to Hell for Universal, it should give the peeps at Paramount time to scout out a scribe.

How will all of this affect Raimi's future with the Spider-Man franchise? Well, it's safe to say that if the director inks the deal to bring Jack Ryan back from the cinematic srap heap, fans probably won't see Raimi behind the camera for a fourth Spider-Man for at least three years. As we know with Hollywood though, anything can happen at any time.

However, Raimi did give people a little bit of insight into the state of his future a few moths ago during the press conference for 30 Days of Night when asked about his involvement in a possible Spider-Man 4, "I’m not contracted to do Spider-Man 4, and I think that would depend on a lot of things. Sony would have to ask me to do it and the story would have to work, and I don’t think... I just [don't] know the answer to that right now."

Given this latest news, it's looking like Raimi might have found his answer.

In the past, the Jack Ryan Character has been played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford, and Ben Affleck.