Kevin Costner might finally star in a Jack Ryan movie

By Sean O'Neal | August 7, 2012 | 7:46pm

Aux Features Film

Over two decades after Kevin Costner turned down a starring role in The Hunt For Red October, probably while saying, "NO, I HAVE TO EDUCATE EVERYONE ABOUT THE NATIVE AMERICANS, NNNYYYEAHHHH" all snotty like that, he may be coming back to the Jack Ryan franchise with a part in Kenneth Branagh-directed prequel/reboot. Deadline reports that Costner has been approached to play a mentor to Chris Pine's young agent—a new character, but one that has parallels to the CIA director played by James Earl Jones from Red October through 1994's Clear And Present Danger. Perplexingly, Jones is expected to reprise that role in the prequel, his evident old age—and the fact that [spoiler ahead] his character already died—further confusing the timeline.

Although, it does seem to affirm that the film will be structured as some sort of flashback to Ryan's younger days, when he came to the CIA from his financial analyst job to help defeat a Russian villain (also played by Branagh) who's out to collapse the U.S. economy—especially considering neither Russian villains nor a U.S. economy worth collapsing really exist anymore. And really, the Jack Ryan series has played pretty fast and loose with continuity over the years. If they were to try to pass off Kevin Costner as a young James Earl Jones at this point, I'm not even sure we'd notice.