Unlike many of Clancy’s books, Without Remorse does not centre around the character of Jack Ryan (who has already been played by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck, with a rumoured Chris Pine reboot also in the works), following instead CIA-operative John Kelly. John Kelly appears in some of Clancy’s books under the alias John Clark and was played by Willem Defoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in The Sum of all Fears.
In Without Remorse, Kelly goes up against a Baltimore drug ring who were responsible for the death of his girlfriend and although the novel itself is set in the 1970’s, no decision has been made yet as to whether the film will be set in the present day.
Given that TV’s The Wire has pretty much established the authoritative modern depiction of drug culture in Baltimore, it might be better to make the film more of a period piece, even if it does add to the production cost to have to buy in a load of flared trousers.
There’s no more news as yet on casting or a director, but we will pass on any juicy information as soon as we get to hear it.
Vulture had the story.