The career of Kenneth Branagh is one of the most interesting in modern Hollywood. From Shakespeare to Super Heroes and lots in-between, Branagh has range beyond most modern filmmakers. He is a fantastic actor to boot.

Last week we told you that the new Jack Ryan movie lost it’s director and was in fast need of a new one. Variety is reporting that they have found their new director:

Paramount and Skydance Pictures moved quickly to find their next director — and it’s Kenneth Branagh… The untitled pic, based on the character created by Tom Clancy, has been a priority at Paramount since Chris Pine came aboard to star, with Lorenzo di Bonaventura producing.

The movie is likely to get underway after Star Trek 2 finishes, giving star Chris Pine time to finish his other big franchise and giving time for Branagh to clear off what ever is on his current plate. This is fantastic news for the movie which was in unstable shape after it lost its previous director.

Bringing on Branagh is one of the boldest choices they could have made and represents a big plus for this flick. Although, it is still looking for a title so hopefully we won’t be saying the Untitled Jack Ryan movie for much longer.

Chris Pine rode a pretty big wave in the wake of Star Trek. He has great on screen presence, looks like a leading man and can even be pretty funny. So he started to pile up some more potential franchises to lead, one of which was a new Jack Ryan movie.

Jack Ryan, for those of who who don’t remember, is the hero of the Tom Clancy novels that were the basis of The Hunt for Red October, Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games, and The Sum of All Fears. He was sort of like James Bond, if Bond were an american CIA analyst.

Unfortunately, according to Variety, the project has lost it’s director:

With his TV commitments piling up, director Jack Bender has fallen out of Paramount and Skydance Pictures’ untitled Jack Ryan project.

Bender is currently the exec producer on Fox’s “Alcatraz” and is set to helm the Syfy pilot “Rewind.” Par was hoping to get this project into production sometime later this summer, and Bender’s TV workload was making it difficult for him to find the time.

This puts the untitled Jack Ryan film on shaky ground, but there is still hope that this won’t delay the start of filming. The producers have until Star Trek 2 wraps before their movie was intended to shoot, so they have to work quickly to find a replacement.

This week On the Radar some details emerge on the next Jack Ryan adventure, a possible front runner to fill Peter Parker’s shoes, and bad news for The Green Hornet.

Marvel continues end credit Easter Eggs in Iron Man 2

In keeping with tradition of recent Marvel flicks this Summer’s Iron Man 2 will allegedly have extra footage post-credits.  While it’s hard to confirm just what exactly will be included this time around, speculation surrounds possible appearances by Thor and/or Captain America.  This of course leads into those two films hitting screens next Summer.  So, make sure to hang around after the film.

Michael Bay set to destroy your TV

I suppose it was only  a matter of time before Michael Bay decided to get into the television production game.  While the reality TV project probably won’t have as many explosions as the Transformers films, it definitely sounds like a premise only Bay could conceive:

“For my first television project I wanted to do something that had never been done before, and I believe that ‘One Way Out’ accomplishes that,” Bay said. “Combining unique twists, death-defying challenges, and stunning visuals, we are reinventing the genre, showing just how far people will go when they are stripped of their bare necessities and forced to do whatever it takes to survive.”

That description sounds vaguely familiar.  Maybe this series is just re-edited behind-the-scenes material from his movie shoots.  If that’s the case, I’m totally on board with this show, too bad no network has picked up the project yet.  Come on guys, this is Michael Bay, master of explosions, what could possibly go wrong.  Boom!

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While James Bond gets a lot of attention on the big screen there’s another pseudo-spy that’s just as good in my opinion.  I’m talking about Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan. Clancy’s novels have been the basis for four films to date with various actors taking on the Ryan role.

Way back in 1990 The Hunt for Red October started it all with Alec Baldwin as the first Jack Ryan. When Baldwin left, Harrison Ford took over for two films, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. The series faltered somewhat thereafter until Ben Affleck arrived in The Sum of all Fears.

As diverse as the actors have been the series overall has held together pretty well in my opinion. While Ford was probably the closest to what Ryan was like in the novels bringing Affleck in was necessary to reboot the franchise with a younger star. Sadly, that never seemed to work out.

Fortunately, producer Mace Neufeld, who has been with the series since the very beginning, is still planning a fresh start.  Chris Pine (Star Trek) will take Affleck’s place as Jack Ryan and word is the fifth film may not be based on a Clancy novel as the other films have been:

“We ran out of books,” says Nuefeld. “Red Rabbit was the last one, and we just couldn’t seem to get a script out of it.” Red Rabbit is one of only two novels, alongside The Cardinal of the Kremlin, in which Ryan is young enough for Pine’s portrayal to be book-faithful.”

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Chris Pine, who was recently seen as Captain James T. Kirk in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek reboot, is reportedly in talks to help reboot another franchise character for Paramount: CIA analyst Jack Ryan. The article stipulates that said talks have just started, but Pine is expected to come aboard the Jack Ryan film soon while the project is still taking shape.

The studio and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld are reportedly working with a script draft by Hossein Amini, based on an original concept. The project is still in development and at the moment there’s no word on if Pine will make another Star Trek film before taking on the role of Jack Ryan. Let’s hope he does.

While I do think Pine was a surprisingly good Kirk, I have to wonder if he’s right for Jack Ryan. Alec Baldwin worked very well as the character and so did Harrison Ford. Pine just doesn’t seem to fit somehow. Maybe because he just seems too young — which worked fine for Star Trek but seems a bit of a stretch for this. Although, if he does end up doing another Star Trek first, he’ll be just about the same age Alec Baldwin was when he did The Hunt for Red October. Maybe Pine will end up a great choice after all.