Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. Among the eye-rolling going on around the concept of a Robert Ludlum "Shared Universe" plan I think the real exciting tidbit is getting lost. If you read the headline then you know where I'm going with this.
Dwayne Johnson is in to star in THE JANSON DIRECTIVE, which will launch a whole slew of interconnected films based on Ludlum's novels from Universal Pictures. They also have adaptations of THE SIGMA PROTOCOL, COVERT ONE and THE PARSIFAL MOSAIC in the works.
Universal has seen a lot of success with Ludlum's BOURNE adaptations, so I can see why they're going this direction and bringing Dwayne Johnson in to be their Mickey Mouse is a good step. The even better step is to pair him with James Vanderbilt, The Rock's screenwriter on The Rundown, which is still one of his best movies.
The only catch is that Akiva Goldsman has gotten himself involved here, too. The dude's got a finger in just about every (non-superhero) big franchise pie and he's pitching in write on Janson as well.
I love popular fiction and don't look down on it like many critics, but Ludlum was never my scene. I always associate them with the Tom Clancy stuff that my grandfather was always thumbing through. They never grabbed me much. I was drawn more to King and Crichton.
But no matter how this whole thing shakes down, the exciting part to me is we're getting a new action flick from the star and co-writer of one of the most fun flicks of the aughts. What do you folks think?
-Eric Vespe
”Quint”
quint@aintitcool.com
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