Kim Masters at the Daily Beast has a long story about how Sony dropped Brad Pitt (“Moneyball”) for George Clooney (see his recent production shingle being set up under their aegis).
Buried on the page 2 of the article is this little mention of a certain political intrigue franchise that just won’t die.
A source says he expressed interest in playing Jack Ryan when and if Paramount attempts to revive the Tom Clancy series. Clooney seems to recognize that at this time in the world and this time in his life (he’s pushing 50), it’s time for some commercial maintenance.
Weird to have that in there, considering the project is under Paramount, not Sony, and we suppose in this tight-buckling climate a safe move like this might help. But it sure aint’ gonna help out Sony or at least not directly. Studio can’t just let a bad franchise die. “Patriot Games” and “The Hunt For Red October” were good, but anything after that has been useless (“the get off my plane!” in “Clear & Present Danger” is as embarrassing as any Arnold Schwarzenegger line)*evidently that line is from “Air Force One,” we didn’t know there was a difference. It all becomes the same ol’ shit to us.
People like Anne Thompson, think the graying Clooney is perfect casting for this role and it is age-wise, but we’d still rather see about 5,000 other original projects first, call us predictable. The whole idea? Meh.
