Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruti hits UK cinemas tomorrow and ahead of it’s release, i got to speak to one of the Producers of the movie Mace Neufeld who talks us through how the movie industry has changed since they released their first movie, The Hunt for Red October 24 years ago starring Sean Connery and Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan. Since then, there have been 4 further incarnations of the Ryan character, this time led by Star Trek’s Chris Pine.
If you’ve missed our extensive coverage of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, click this way for more interviews with the cast, filmmakers ,our set report and review of the movie.
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Why has it taken 12 years for another Jack Ryan movie to appear on our cinema screens?
I think it’s just the serendipity of movie making. The Sum of All Fears was a success and we probably would have rolled into another Jack Ryan movie at that point. Ben Affleck got involved with a film called Gigli which was a disaster! The powers that be at Paramount at that time said they didnt want to do another Jack Ryan film with Ben Affleck. The natural process of continuing the franchise stopped abruptly and for various reasons and two regime changes at Paramount, we just dawdled along; various directors came in, we looked at scripts but no script was put into developement until about three years ago when Adam Goodman came to Paramount. They looked at what the JR films had done financially, they were fans and Adam Goodman and Brad Grey said let’s put another into work and that’s when it really started.
They cast Chris Pine as Jack Ryan right after Star Trek and at least we had the young Jack Ryan pinned down, then it was down to getting the script right, getting a Director and getting the budget right.
Was Ben Affleck ever considered to come back again as Jack Ryan in this movie after resurrecting his career since Gigli?
I don’t think we ever discussed Ben after that. His career went off as a Director and as an actor, it’s a different world.
Why is Chris Pine the right man for the job?
When I saw him in Star Trek, I thought he did a great job of what William Shatner did on TV. I went to see him and he was appearing in two plays within three months. I realised he was an accomplished actor so I met with him, found out that he came from an acting family; both his mother and father were actors. He combined everything we needed, both attractiveness as a young leading man and a really smart and accomplished acting ability.
And what was right about Kenneth Branagh to Direct?
It was Paramount’s suggestion as there was another director involved in this film (Jack Bender) who unfortunately had to leave to go and make a television series. He’s previously done Lost for J.J. Abrams for a few years, had a new series coming and we did not have a green light. So we were left with a script in progress, an actor to play Jack Ryan and Paramount suggested Kenneth Brangh.
I had briefly met him many years before when I optioned the book called A Philosophical Investigation by Phillip Kerr and Branagh called to say he’d love to play the villain in the piece. I met him in California and we had lunch, he’d done an enormous amount of homework, had seen all the Ryan movies in a marathon, read several more of the Tom Clancy books. He thought we could shoot the movie in England to take advantage of the tax rebate and brought pictures with him to show locations of England that he thought could double for Russia. As soon as he came on as director and we had our leading man, it was a question of getting the right and getting the budget approved and that happened rather quickly after Kenneth came on.
Do you have a favourite of the Jack Ryan movie?
I have nine grandchildren and I couldn’t tell you which one is my favourite!
It’s 24 years since The Hunt for Red October came out, a lot has changed in the world and also in filmmaking, what’s the biggest changes and similarities since the two?
It all starts with the story. You can make a passable film out of a great script or a great film out of a great script but it’s difficult to make a really good film from a bad script. It all starts with the words. The second thing that has changed is the cost of marketing films; it’s so expensive to market a today and the stakes are so high. When I started working exclusively with Paramount in 1988, they were making twenty-something films a year and they’re making about half of that now. The marketing people are involved with the process right from the beginning. Years ago Production made the film, delivered it to Marketing who would figure out how to sell it. Now there’s a real collaboration between Marketing and Production which starts right from the script. There is so much competition out there.
Tom Clancy sadly died in October 2013, how involved was he in this last film? Did he get to come to set?
No, he was totally detached from this film. He didn’t come to the set, he unfortunately didn’t see the film before he passed away. He was happy and was a fan of Chris Pine and when he heard Chris Pine was going to play Jack Ryan, he was quite happy about that.
Why was it decided that ‘Jack Ryan’ would feature in the title of the movie? Does that mean we can expect other ‘Jack Ryan:’ Movies to follow suit
We’re hoping! It all depends on our grosses in the first two weeks. Jack Ryan is a very recognisable name to a lot of people. Clancy sold an enormous amount of books and Jack Ryan stories so we felt and we know that audiences have been waiting to see another Jack Ryan movie so it was important to have that in the title.
You’ve got The Equalizer coming up next, what can we expect from that?
I think you can expect a really exciting film. We’re still in post production but Director Antoine Fuqua’s Director’s cut was one of the best Director’s cuts I’ve ever seen. Sony is very excited about it and hopefully it’ll be the beginning of another franchise. Denzel Washington of course is a superb actor and that’ll be with us later this year.
