CraveOnline: I would call Jack Ryan a nerd. That’s what I love about him.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: He is a bit, yes.
I think that’s what makes the character so intriguing. Yeah, if you throw him in a firefight, he was a Marine and he knows what to do, but he’s more comfortable in a room telling people smart things that they don’t understand. There’s something that’s so rare about that in American cinema.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: That’s right.
I think someone asked this question in the press conference, but was there ever any pushback from anyone at any point, just trying to make this a more conventional action-thriller franchise? Even early on?
Mace Neufeld: Early on, no. You’re talking about early on?
I’m talking about The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games.
Mace Neufeld: No.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: The tricky part at this moment in time is, because of Bourne really more than Bond, you were like, do we have to meet that? Has the spy game changed in a way that if you don’t meet it you could fail? We made a decision not to meet it because… but there was definitely a little bit of, “Okay, let’s hope we’re right.” For myself, I’ll say that, but what you can do with this character is different than what you can do with Jason Bourne or James Bond, and that’s what makes it fun for us. We’ve done different kinds of movies. This character can do very specific things. It’s interesting you call him a nerd.
I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: There’s a lot of truth in that, you know? There’s a lot of truth in that. He’s a guy that’s very content thinking thoughts.
Back to Kenneth Branagh, he was originally announced as the director and then shortly thereafter you announced that he was playing the villain. Was that always part of the idea, or did you audition a lot of people and then Kenneth Branagh said, “Screw it, I can do it better myself?”
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: We tricked him. We just got him as a director and then we said, “You know, you oughta be the bad guy.” [Laughs] That’s the truth. We never talked about anybody else. We to ourselves said, “Okay, we get him as a director, the next thing we’re going to do is say…”
Mace Neufeld: Two for one!
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: “Ken… come on! You gotta do it!”
Did you trick him into only getting one paycheck though? That’s the real question.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura: No. He’s got a better agent than that. [Laughs]
