Given that franchises tend to be where more and more of the box office dollar seems to be headed, it's hardly a surprise that many studios are busy looking at properties in their back catalogue that could be revived once more.

With that in mind, it seems that Paramount over the past year or so has been actively looking to give Jack Ryan another whirl. The story so far with the Ryan saga has seen Alec Baldwin play the character in The Hunt For Red October, Harrison Ford taking the reigns for Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger, with Ben Affleck becoming Ryan for the underrated The Sum Of All Fears.

The further adventures of Ryan have, at different stages over the past year or so, been linked to Ryan Gosling (an inspired choice from where we're sitting), Harrison Ford again (although you can't imagine Paramount taking the character old again, especially not at the price Ford would charge) and more recently George Clooney.

But from the bridge of the USS Enterprise has come a new forerunner. Chris Pine, who took on the role of James T Kirk in JJ Abrams' Star Trek reboot, is now being reported as in the frame to head up the next take on the Jack Ryan franchise.

According to Variety, Pine is now in negotiations with Paramount to take on the role. The next Jack Ryan film won't be (loosely) based on a Tom Clancy novel, rather an original story and script is being developed. It's still unlikely, we'd wager, that Ryan would shift ahead of Star Trek 2 in Paramount's plans, yet Pine could find himself in the position of headlining two of a studio's most lucrative franchises.

More news as we get it. In the interim, here's that Variety story.