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George Clooney as Jack Ryan?

My Sister would go ga-ga, but I dunno if he's the right fit for it. I bet he'd do a good job.
 
I'd love to see a new Jack Ryan film. But I am not so worried about who they cast as Ryan as what the producers would do with the script. Sum of All Fears was a great novel that the movie screwed up by changing too many plot points. Would the film makers have the guts to show an airliner crash into the Capitol Building like in Debt of Honor considering the memories of 911? Would the film makers have the guts to portray the villain as an Iranian Islam fanatic as in Executive Orders considering how politically correct we seem to be now about portraying Islamic terrorism?
 
I'll have you know Hollywood is NOT PC when it comes to terrorism. In fact, they just cast Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Reynolds as the leaders of the Mormon extremists who attacked the USS Cole. :p
 
If Clooney could work with the development team of Hunt for Red October and I think we could really have some worthwhile Jack Ryan movies.
 
I really want to see Without Remorse filmed... It's my second-favourite Clancy book. Clear And Present Danger is tops, but has already been a movie. (Debt Of Honor and Rainbow Six round out the top four.)

I can't see Hollywood really handling Debt Of Honor's conclusion that well - I suspect if they filmed it, they'd leave out the kamikaze Jumbo.
 
As much as I like the Jack Ryan series, they (books) started going downhill after Sum of All Fears, imo. Debt of Honor was good (could Hollywood do that ending?), Executive Decisions was meh, but Bear and the Dragon and Red Rabbit were pretty bland. I would love to see Cardinal in the Kremlin, or a new cold war story involving Jack Ryan. Though I doubt many of today's audiences would watch a cold war era thriller.

I could see Clooney as Ryan (he'll never beat Baldwin as the best), but other than Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games, the movies were rather lackluster themselves. Again maybe a new story would invigorate the series.

Without Remorse or Rainbox Six would be pretty cool too!
 
Aragorn said:
I'll have you know Hollywood is NOT PC when it comes to terrorism. In fact, they just cast Matthew McConaughey and Ryan Reynolds as the leaders of the Mormon extremists who attacked the USS Cole. :p
Click to expand...

Damn right. There's nothing PC about casting Matthew McConaughey in anything.
 
I'd pay to see a screen adaption of Without Remorse.

But I stopped readin' Clancy's stuff after Jack Ryan became President. That was just too damn much...
 
If Clooney was cast as Ryan, I think it would be amusing that he would be the third vocally liberal actor - after Baldwin and Affleck - to play a character created by an ultra-conservative writer.

(Not sure what Ford's politics are - I think he's fairly centrist, a moderate Democrat, IIRC.)
 
Well, it would certainly be funny to see the liberal Clooney uttering consevative principles as Jack Ryan does in the novels.
 
No one can top Alan Alda playing a character at the opposite end of the political spectrum as he is in real life. Most likely you'll get the mustache-twirling Richard Dreyfuss approach.
 
If Clooney was to play Ryan (though I think that this is at best wishful thinking by the studio), it would mean that the character had been played by The Shadow, Han Solo, Indiana Jones, The Fugitive, Daredevil, Batman and Danny Ocean.

His occasional cohort, John Clarke, merely has The Green Goblin and Sabretooth to his repertoire. Perhaps by that rationale, Clarke ought to be played in the next movie by someone else who's played a supervillain in a Marvel movie. Colin Farrell? Topher Grace?!
 
Admiral Jarok said:
As much as I like the Jack Ryan series, they (books) started going downhill after Sum of All Fears, imo. Debt of Honor was good (could Hollywood do that ending?), Executive Decisions was meh, but Bear and the Dragon and Red Rabbit were pretty bland. I would love to see Cardinal in the Kremlin, or a new cold war story involving Jack Ryan. Though I doubt many of today's audiences would watch a cold war era thriller.
Click to expand...

Any adaptation of Clancy's earlier works would be likely altered to fit the modern day and age ... I don't think we're at the point that period-piece '80s Cold War films are really going to be accepted; we probably need another ten years for that. That said, I would love to see Clooney in the role, particularly if a new Jack Ryan film project were to adopt the arc in which Ryan takes the presidency.

As for Clancy's writing ... well, after the runaway success of The Sum of All Fears (the book, that is), largely fueled by the popularity of Clancy's prior film adaptations, Clancy had enough clout to only be edited for typography, not for length / content. After that, his firebreathing conservative views became clear, as did his predilection for military porn. (I really don't need to know how many rivets are in an Abrams tank, or whatever.)
 
I still remember the rumors that the people behind Sum of all Fears were planning an adaption of Red Rabbit (that had just come out I think) and Ben was supposed to come back for it. Then all of all sudden nothing on the Jack Ryan front until this Clooney rumors.
 
^ There was a rumor of Ryan Gosling as young Jack Ryan (with an original script called By Any Means Necessary not based on a book) before the Clooney rumors.
 
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