1. After the success of Star Trek, Paramount hired writer Hossein Amini to script a Jack Ryan movie for Chris Pine.

2. Paramount buys a spec script called Dubai and tells writer Adam Cozad to make that the Jack Ryan movie.

3. Unhappy with that take, Paramount hired Anthony Peckham to rewrite Cozad’s script.

4. Then writer Steve Zaillian was brought on, but quickly abandoned ship.

5. Project goes into limbo.

6. David Koepp gets 7-figures to rewrite Cozad’s script. Which of the hundreds of drafts lying around Paramount’s offices will be the starting point for Koepp’s version is anyone’s guess.

7. 40 more writers are hired and fired.

8. Eight years later, the screenwriting robot is finally complete and Robo-Writer 9000 electoni-pens the perfect rewrite in 4 minutes. None of the human writers get an on-screen credit.

Jack Bender (“Lost”) is attached to direct. That much has not changed… for now. (Deadline)

The studio had a plan to reboot Tom Clancy hero Jack Ryan in an origin story film helmed by Jack Bender (“Lost”), with Pine as the lead, a part that’s been portrayed by Harrison Ford and Alec Baldwin – good company. Rather than adapt one of Clancy’s many novels, the studio wants someone to rewrite a spec screenplay that had nothing to do with Jack Ryan. The new plot involves young Jack Ryan escaping a deadly helicopter crash. Sounds helicopter-y, and by working the name “Jack Ryan” in there, serious cashola can be acquired by audiences who hate new things.

Many writers are being interviewed, and many more have already banged the script and were kicked out of script’s bed the next morning. Steve Zaillian (Clear and Present Danger) made a deal to do the job last month, but he backed out. Unfortunately for lovers of helicopter destruction cinema, without a solid script, production won’t move forward.

So even though Paramount was trying hard to get this project off the ground before Pine starred as Captain Kirk in the next Star Trek, it looks like the Enterprise is traveling a whole lo faster than the Red October, even though J.J. Abrams hasn’t officially signed on to direct the sequel yet. Paramount hopes that little detail won’t stop them from shooting this Fall and hitting their June 29, 2012 release date.

Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are are working on the Star Trek 2 script. (Deadline)

Despite the low-key announcement, it seems as though this project has been steadily moving forward, with “Lost’s” Jack Bender directing and the presumably Italian Lorenzo di Bonaventura serving as producer. No other details have been released, but judging by the working title, I’m going to presume a Russian context for this story.

The Jack Ryan serial has been dormant since 2002, when Harrison Ford was replaced with Ben Affleck, and the James Earl Jones-type character was replaced with a Morgan Freeman-type character. (Inspired choice, by the way) Though no production date has been announced, it is reported that they want to get underway before year’s end.

Now: GET OFF MY PLANE!

Whoops, wrong movie.

Anthony Peckham, the writer behind Sherlock Holmes and Invictus, is Paramount’s choice to pen the latest Jack Ryan film, Empire Online is reporting. The film, starring Chris Pine and directed by Jack Bender, will mark the 5th time the iconic Tom Clancy character has appeared on the silver screen.

In the film, Ryan and his trusty sidekick Watson will attempt to stop an attack on Nelson Mandela as he watches a rugby game atop the Tower of London. That’s my guess, anyway. What do I look like, a god damn 19th century detective?