We could go down the ‘Why on earth is the Jack Ryan franchise a franchise, considering its bland, interchangeable main character?’ route again, but we’ve been down that road, so we’ll keep it brief and to the point. After rumors linked Sam Raimi, Gore Verbinski, Timur Bekmambetov and Kevin MacDonald to the directors chair on the Ryan reboot “Moscow” a few weeks back, Vulture has news that a rather surprising candidate looks close to be landing the chair.
Jack Bender, an executive producer on “Lost” and director of many of the series’ biggest episodes, including the finale (as well as episodes of “The Sopranos,” “Carnivale” and “Alias,” among others), is apparently “a cat’s breath” away from the job despite his most recent big-screen directorial effort being “Child’s Play 3;” a reminder to any aspiring director that the shitty horror movie you take to pay off your beach house will always come back to bite you in the ass when you land a studio gig.
Some might be worried about Bender’s lack of experience, but “Lost” was always fairly cinematic and action packed, so we imagine he’s a fairly good (and inexpensive) choice for the studio. Chris Pine will be taking on the lead role in the film, which follows Ryan as a young, pre-CIA economist who is framed by a villainous Russian billionaire attempting to attack the US economy. Filming will likely take place late this year before Pine’s commitment to “Star Trek 2,” which is tentatively slated for a summer 2010 start.
