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:
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