MICHAEL B. JORDAN AVENGES
A Targeted Navy SEAL in Without Remorse
Spin-off prequels have to walk a very tricky line in order to connect with audiences. Just look at the mixed reception to Solo: A Star Wars Story and Ridley Scott’s Prometheus.
In Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, Michael B. Jordan will delve into the origin story of Navy SEAL and CIA operative John Kelly of the Jack Ryan universe. The plot concerns Kelly uncovering an international conspiracy about his murdered wife. As is par-for-the course in the Ryan-verse, there are some evil Russians, and the omnipresent threat of nuclear war.
The character of John Kelly has previously been portrayed by two other actors in Jack Ryan film franchise entries. Willem Dafoe was Kelly opposite Harrison Ford’s no-nonsense take on Jack Ryan in 1994’s Clear and Present Danger. And in 2002, Liev Schreiber appeared as Kelly —opposite Ben Affleck’s Jack Ryan in The Sum of All Fears.
Without Remorse takes its title from Clancy’s first Kelly-focused 1993 book. The American rights for the book sold for a (then) record amount of $14 million, and it went on to become a #1 New York Times bestseller. The book was a direct sequel to the novel The Hunter for the Red October, whose film adaptation cast Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan.
This action thriller is helmed by Italian Director Stefano Sollima (of Sicario: Day of the Soldado, and the hit TV crime series Gomorrah). The cast also includes Jodie Turner-Smith (the British actress of The Last Ship, Nightflyers, and Queen & Slim) as Karen Greer, a fellow SEAL; Jamie Bell (recently in Rocketman, and as a kid as Billy Elliot) as Robert Ritter, a shadowy CIA officer; and Guy Pearce as Secretary Clay.
Previously, director Christopher McQuarrie (of “Mission: Impossibles” Rogue Nation and Fallout, Jack Reacher, and an Oscar winner for The Usual Suspects screenplay) was attached to a film version of this project and the actors Keanu Reeves and Tom Hardy were rumored or approached/offered the role.
Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video on April 30, 2021.
