Beaks here...
It's been a protracted development for Paramount's reboot of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan franchise, but now that A-list screenwriter Steven Zaillian has - per Deadline's Michael Fleming - been brought in to rewrite the heavily-tinkered-with script, it's clear that the studio is serious about getting this movie before cameras.
According to Fleming, the project - which is not based on a Clancy novel - has a working title of MOSCOW, and will deal with the helicopter crash that compelled him to either a) leave the Marines for Wall Street (book version), or b) become a desk-bound CIA analyst (movie version). In both versions, the accident spurred a crippling fear of flying.
Zaillian, who's one of the best screenwriters around, certainly knows his way around the Ryan character, having done some degree of rewriting on both PATRIOT GAMES (uncredited) and CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER. Chris Pine will be the fourth actor to play Ryan (after Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck). TV veteran Jack Bender (LOST, THE SOPRANOS and ALIAS) is set to direct.
