Star Trek’s Chris Pine beams into another franchise and assumes the role of Jack Ryan in Paramount’s fresh take on the character. The new incarnation of Tom Clancy’s creation has undergone a slight change as Paramount Pictures have been testing out the revised title, Jack Ryan: Shadow One.

Directed by and co-starring Kenneth Branagh who assumes villain duties (well he is British and we do make the best bad guys, even when playing Russians), having successfully brought Thor to the big screen Branagh was keen to tackle a different type of movie for his next project.

Chris Pine is the fourth actor to play Jack Ryan following Alec Baldwin in The Hunt For Red October, Harrison Ford in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger, with Ben Affleck taking the first reboot stab in 2002’s The Sum Of All Fears. The latter was intended as the start of a new franchise, despite solid reviews and a decent run at the box office no sequels were produced.

In many ways Jack Ryan as a film series has the same ability to reinvent itself as the James Bond franchise, an actor can play the role for a couple of films then the role could be recast. True as that might be, Paramount clearly have designs on longevity to the universe they establish in this new film as a spin-off based on Clancy’ Without Remorse is already in development with Kevin Costner reprising his role as William Harper.

Kiera Knightley also stars in the action thriller as Jack’s wife Cathy and a trailer is expected to debut in the very near future.

Jack Ryan: Shadow One will be released this December.