Despite some apparently rigorous auditioning, there has not been a tremendous flurry over which leading lady would be cast as Dr. Caroline “Cathy” Muller Ryan in Kenneth Branagh‘s Chris Pine-starring Jack Ryan. Perhaps the years we’ve spent waiting for the film have burned us out, or maybe everyone is just sick of “shortlists,” but word is now out on the final choice for the role, and it’s an interesting one. THR reports that Keira Knightley is in negotiations for the role of Mrs. Ryan for the film, which will serve as a prequel of sorts to Tom Clancy‘s book series about his popular CIA analyst character. The film will reportedly center “on ex-Marine and Moscow-based financial analyst Jack Ryan (Pine), who uncovers a plot by his employer to finance a terrorist attack designed to collapse the U.S. economy. Ryan must race against time to save America and his wife (Knightley).” The role of Cathy Ryan has been most notably played before by Anne Archer in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, and she has also been portrayed by Bridget Moynahan in The Sum of All Fears and Gates McFadden (hey, Dr. Crusher!) in The Hunt for Red October.

Once upon a time the name Tom Clancy meant something to both the suits in Hollywood and the seats in theaters across America. The Hunt for Red October, an adaptation of Clancy’s first novel, was a commercial and critical hit, and it set the stage for three follow-up films featuring the author’s most famous character, Jack Ryan. The four movies averaged $200 million each at the worldwide box-office, but they stopped with 2002′s The Sum of All Fears (because there was a time when Ben Affleck’s name killed everything it touched). That same year saw the debut of Splinter Cell, a 3rd-person view stealth shooter that put players in the silent but deadly shoes of CIA operative Sam Fisher (voiced by Michael Ironside). Like Clancy’s Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games this featured his name and advisement but no direct link to his fiction. The game series has been a big success, and talk of a movie adaptation has been evident throughout the past decade. Per Deadline Langley, studios are once again batting around the idea of a Splinter Cell adaptation. Publisher Ubisoft was in talks with WB in recent weeks, but it looks like Paramount may be the ones close to signing a deal. The studio is already in pre-production on a reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise starring Chris Pine’s forehead, so another collaboration seems likely.

The answer is yes. It’s funny how video games have gotten more and more cinematic, while video game adaptations have still been mostly awful. According to Cinema Blend, Ubisoft has sent out a survey to its loyal customers that asks them several questions about movies, including whether they’d like to see Rainbow Six and Assassin’s Creed. It even asks which characters they’d need to focus on. Big studio pictures are edited by focus groups, but here’s a situation where a big company is thinking about getting into the film business by getting a big focus group together at the front end. That’s not a terrible idea. Think of the movies that could have been avoided (and the money saved) if studios has just asked people whether they wanted them or not. Both of these titles would translate impeccably well to film. Rainbow Six would be an action film done in the Tom Clancy tradition, focusing on an elite counter-terrorism team. Assassin’s Creed might get a little too Prince of Persia‘d, but it has the appeal of an elite assassin team killing powerful bad guys in a rustic European setting. They are both high concept with some decently developed characters, and there’s no reason why they wouldn’t work on screen. Hopefully those survey-takers agree, and we’ll be able to see these projects move on to the next steps.

John Clark is the ultimate Tom Clancy badass. He’s what Jack Ryan is not. That goes for the films as well. Both Willem Dafoe and Liev Schreiber portrayed that wonderfully, but sadly, the spinoff many fans were always hoping for never got around to happening. Even sadder news, it most likely wont happen anytime soon. When I talked to Lorenzo di Bonaventura – who’s producing the reboot of the beloved character – there were two specific things I wanted to know: will this do-over be an origin story and will we see John Clark? The answer is “yes” for the origin story, but unfortunately “no” for John Clark. The reason why makes sense though. Being an origin story and all, it’s best to primarily focus on Ryan. Perhaps if this origin story relaunches the franchise successfully, we’ll see Clark in further installments. But as of right now, we’re going to have to wait a while to see that happen.

While reading this article, you may notice that Robert Ludlum titled all of his novels by staring with “The,” adding an enigmatic adjective like “Parsifal,” and ending it with a nonsensical noun like “mosaic.” You may also notice that Ron Howard will be directing a movie based off of “The Parsifal Mosaic.”

If this news had shown up about twelve days later I’d call it an April Fool’s joke.