When news came that Chris Pine is (maybe) the new Jack Ryan, all I could think of was that he’s just not a big enough star. Sure, he was in a hit movie this summer, but Star Trek is not enough to propel anybody into stardom. Should William Shatner have gone on to play Indiana Jones after Star Trek: The Motion Picture? Of course not. Nobody would have seen that. Okay, I would have definitely seen that, but not for positive reasons.

The thing about the Jack Ryan character is he’s kind of boring, so he needs someone like Harrison Ford to play him. Or, it has to be made at a time when adults go to see good movies like The Hunt for Red October without need for a big star (though Sean Connery’s face didn’t hurt that film). I liked The Sum of All Fears okay, but not even a semi star like Ben Affleck could carry it sufficiently. I don’t buy that Pine can carry the next one.

Unless he has help and the trust of the studio. For the character to work, Paramount needs to find an actor who they’ll stick with and who will stick with the role. Otherwise moviegoers are not going to think of it as a familiar franchise. With only four films the Jack Ryan series is already gaining quickly on the number of actors that played James Bond, to whom Ryan should be looking up. Ryan should be like the domestic answer to 007 and should equivalently have an iconic look, some trademarks (a kind of vehicle and favorite drink, for example) and maybe even a catchphrase.

I know, this all sounds like bad news, mainly because such things shouldn’t be forced or they’re liable to be corny. But if there’s no writers smart enough to make it work they should just abandon it.

Let’s see what other film bloggers think of the casting after the jump:

• Tim Gomez at Cinema Blend likes the casting but isn’t sure Pine needs the role:
  

  At the end of the day, the Jack Ryan franchise will definitely gain more from Chris Pine’s involvement than Chris Pine will. Sure, he’ll get the notoriety of starring in a major movie franchise that will eventually pick up a talented director to help guide him. But he has that already, right? Tom Clancy’s series, on the other hand, will likely be revived by a hip, talented young actor, a guy who somehow revived the Star Trek series, a franchise that hasn’t been cool in years, if ever. Step aside, Affleck. The real Jack Ryan is here.

• Drew McWeeny at HitFix believes Pine is this generation’s Harrison Ford:
  

  Paramount’s smart to try to lock Pine down to a second franchise.  His work in “Star Trek” this summer immediately put him on the radar of pretty much every filmmaker in town, and in my opinion, it’s one of the most immediate star-making turns since the early work by Harrison Ford.  There’s a swagger to Pine and a confidence that makes him arresting onscreen, and yet he’s got enough of a sense of humor about himself that it’s appealing and not off-putting.  He’s a credible action lead, but he’s obviously also got a brain in that head.  Basically, he’s the package people are looking for when they talk about movie stars, and it’s been a while since we’ve seen one show up fully formed like this.

• Neil Miller at Film School Rejects compares this casting to that of Affleck’s awhile back:
  

  Remember when Ben Affleck was Hollywood’s new dramatic ‘it’ kid? Just after Armageddon and Good Will Hunting, when he was said to be the next big action star on the block. He did that movie with Sam Jackson, Changing Lanes, and he scored a huge role as the next Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears. He was supposed to take over the franchise, reboot this iconic character made famous by the great Harrison Ford. It was going to be glorious… What happened to that?

  To quote a sci-fi show that none of you have probably ever heard of, all of this has happened before, all of this will happen again.

• Dustin Rowles at Pajiba doesn’t see Pine as Ryan, who he feels has no relevance today anyway:
  

  Of course, my worst-case-scenario prediction isn’t as worst-case as it once was, having seen and appreciated Pine in Star Trek (back when I made the prediction, I’d only seen him in that Lindsey Lohan movie). Still, he doesn’t really seem to suit the part, but then again, neither did Ben Affleck. Granted, Ben Affleck was a terrible Jack Ryan. In fact, now that the Cold War is over, the entire Jack Ryan concept feels kind of dated to me.

• Krystal Clark at ScreenCrave points to why this may be the time to incorporate new “Ryanverse” characteristics:
  

  if my memory serves me correct there aren’t that many books left for them to adapt for a feature. With the lack of preexisting material to choose from it’s no surprise that producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld are working with a script draft by Hossein Amini, based on an original concept.

• Elisabeth Rappe at Cinematical also addresses the need for an injection of iconicism:
  

  Stepping into the CIA shoes of Jack Ryan really puts Pine well onto the Harrison Ford track. Not many actors can land one iconic character in their careers, let alone two. Of course, “iconic” is a loose compliment for Ryan as he’s really more of a cool name than a strikingly memorable character. (Admit it — the movies are cool, but Ryan is like Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt –he’s just kind of moving things along in a bad-ass fashion.) Perhaps Pine can change that, and reboot Ryan into something clear and present in pop culture.

• Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere thinks Pine doesn’t project the right intelligence or heft for the role, but he does make a somewhat hopeful comparison:
  

  if you use the Bond franchise as an analogy, The Hunt for Red October was Dr. No, Patriot Games was From Russia With Love and Clear and Present Danger was Goldfinger. And The Sum of All Fears was 9/11 meets Diamonds Are Forever or maybe The Man With The Golden Gun. The new Ryan franchise, I presume, will in a certain sense be trying to re-energize the way Casino Royale got the Bond franchise going again with…you know, Pine trying to fill Daniel Craig’s shoes or whatever. Well, at least they’re both blonde.

• Matt Goldberg at Collider points out why the Jack Ryan franchise is not the answer to the Bond series:
  

  The “Jack Ryan” franchise is potentially lucrative but difficult franchise since it lacks an over-arching story and really wants to be more of the American James Bond except less cool and more patriotic which in the books of Tom Clancy usually means jingoistic.  Compound this with the fact that we now have an American 007 with Jason Bourne and everyone wants to copy that character.

• Mark at I Watch Stuff notices another franchise with similarly too many portrayers:
  

  Now that we have an equal number of Jack Ryan movie portrayers and Batman movie portrayers*, I think the next step is obvious: four buddy comedies!

  *We aren’t counting Adam West.

• Gabe Toro at The Playlist reminds us why this franchise has taken so long to continue:
  

  No talent has been attached behind the camera for the reboot, though in the past, both Fernando Merielles and Sam Raimi were, Raimi departing because Paramount wouldn’t bet on James Franco as Ryan, and Merielles out because everyone saw “Blindness.” Originally, there were plans to adapt “Red Rabbit,” which was a prequel/naked plea for a movie adaptation to feature a younger Ryan, but there’s no report on what storyline they are currently aiming for. George Clooney reportedly showed interest in the franchise, which would mean adapting the more ludicrous final books in the series where Ryan becomes President, but producers claim they are still interested in a younger angle.

• S.T. VanAirsdale at Movieline doubts the whole project this early in the game:
  

  Another $10 says this will never come to pass [...] the next Ryan film barely has a script and won’t likely shoot for at least a couple years; while we all salute Pine’s agents for getting his name attached to everything this week, will they please show some modesty and discretion in the meantime?

• Vince Mancini at FilmDrunk also thinks it’s way too early to be discussing this:
  

  This is really exciting news because Chris Pine might maybe play a character in a movie as yet to be determined.  And it’s from the producer of G.I. Joe and the upcoming Asteroids movie, so you know it’s going to be good.  As long as they find a director and a budget and a script and a place to shoot it and some other actors.  Really, I don’t see what could go wrong.