As some have already pointed out, the video game finding its big screen home at Paramount sort of makes sense, as they are the studio that’s been churning out movies based on thriller novelist Tom Clancy‘s famous character Jack Ryan since 1990. Clancy has relatively little to do with Splinter Cell, though, his involvement really only amounting to lending his name and endorsement to the franchise.

The Splinter Cell games do have a similar espionage subject matter to the Jack Ryan novels and films, so it’s possible that Paramount has a good movie on its hands. Splinter Cell certainly has the ingredients to make a somewhat “classier” movie than your average video game adaptation, so optimists have a reason to feel good about this one. (The Playlist)

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)

_{Shawn’s here for dinner. Invite him in.}

"The Shield" creator Shawn Ryan has been hired to turn Tom Clancy‘s best-seller Without Remorse into kick-ass script for Paramount. Star Trek writer-producers, and J.J. Abrams‘s BFFs, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci are producing. Vulture shoops with the scoop:

The book follows one of Clancy’s recurring characters, John Kelly (who later assumes the alias of John Clark, and appears in the Jack Ryan novels like Patriot Games and Rainbow Six), as he seeks revenge against the Baltimore drug ring responsible for the death of his girlfriend. While the book is set in the 1970s during the Vietnam War, insiders tell us there’s no definitive plan to make the film a "period" piece.

The thought of Shawn Ryan writing the story of a man seeking revenge against a drug ring stimulates my pleasure centers. "The Shield" is one of my favorite shows of all time. If Without Remorse captures the same tone with characters as rich and compelling as Vic Mackey and his Strike Team then I’d say Paramount has a successful franchise on its hands. Just don’t get Walton Goggins to play the role of the hick, if there even is one. Dude needs to branch out. "President" has a nice ring to it.

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?