Tradecraft: Mission: Impossible Writer Tackles Jack Ryan

Another month, another screenwriter on the interminably long-in-development Jack Ryan origin film.  Following a succession of scribes that's included Hossein Amini, Adam Cozad, Anthony Peckham, Cozad again and, briefly, Steve Zaillian (who changed his mind before actually contributing a draft), Paramount has now turned to Big Bucks Franchise Man David Koepp to try his hand at rebooting Tom Clancy's famed CIA analyst in the person of Chris Pine.  Deadline reports that Koepp will be paid seven figures for his rewrite (still based on the Cozad draft), a fee he's earned from contributions to such mega-hit franchises as Jurassic Park, Spider-man, Men in Black and Indiana Jones, to name just a few of his blockbusters.  His most major previous contribution to the spy genre was collaborating on the screenplay for the first Mission: Impossible film with Zaillian and Robert Towne.  (I don't know which one of those writers came up with the brilliant idea of making Jim Phelps a traitor, but I'd like to give that one a punch in the face.)  According to the trade blog, Paramount hopes to start production on the new Jack Ryan movie in January, after Pine finishes with the Star Trek sequel.  (It was previously slated to film before Trek.)  Lost's Jack Bender, who must be a very patient man, is still attached to direct.