_{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.