Kevin Costner has just signed on to play William Harper in the reboot of the Jack Ryan film franchise. As of now we know that Jack Ryan of The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, and The Sum of All Fears, will be played by Chris Pine, and Kenneth Branagh will be directing the first installment of Tom Clancy’s novel-turned-film series.
Kevin Costner’s character will serve as the man who recruits Jack Ryan and mentors him. It’s apparently enough of a meaty role that there is talk of making him even more of a prominent character in a spinoff of Jack Ryan, called Without Remorse. Without Remorse follows another CIA operative that William Harper mentors named John Kelly. I am guessing that the new Jack Ryan film must have that good of a script that there are already seeds planted to turn it into two separate franchises, both of which will have Kevin Costner’s character.
It’s nice to see Kevin Costner recognizing that while he might be a really good actor and a lot of people like him, he’s far from his leading man days. When you start getting up there like him and Dennis Quaid, the only way you are going to get in those bigger films is to play fathers and mentors, or bad guys. Or get a show on CBS. Quaid did that. Costner is going to play Jonathan Kent in Man of Steel, he was AWESOME in Hatfields and McCoy’s on History Channel, and William Harper will give him the opportunity to be a part of two probably successful franchises as a central character. I’d like to see Costner do more of this, and less Message in a Bottle.
Also, Waterworld was not as bad as people seem to think it was.
The Postman was however.