Back in 2021, Michael B. Jordan hit screens as the Tom Clancy-created military intelligence character John Clark in ‘Without Remorse’, which had originally been planned as a theatrical release before Paramount, concerned about the pandemic’s impact on box office, shipped the movie off to Prime Video.
But even further back than that, when Jordan was first talked about as playing Clark, there was talk of fellow Clancy/Clark novel ‘Rainbow Six’ in development. And that is now coming to fruition, with Chad Stahelski in the director’s seat.
Clark, AKA John Terrence Kelly, is an ex-Navy Seal-turned-operations officer for the CIA (and colleague of Jack Ryan) who appears in 17 Clancy novels starting with 1988’s ‘The Cardinal of the Kremlin’. Though mainly seen as a secondary character who helps Ryan with more of the physical elements of any mission, Clark finally stepped into the spotlight with ‘Without Remorse’, which showed how he came to work for the agency.
‘Rainbow Six’, for its part, continues Clark’s story as he leads the anti-terrorist squad known as Rainbow (the “six” is his callsign). Rainbow consists of two operational teams of elite soldiers from NATO countries, supplemented by intelligence and technological experts from the FBI, MI6, and Mossad.
In the book, Clark and his team must unravel and stop a huge international conspiracy with the aim of wiping out nearly all of humanity. The title has also spawned a series of video games.
No writer is listed on the movie yet, and we don’t know how the film will adapt the book––‘Without Remorse’ made some changes to Clark’s story and the book’s plot, so we’d expect ‘Rainbow Six’ to similarly make alterations.
‘Without Remorse’, directed by Stefano Sollima, was met with mixed reviews, but audiences appreciated Jordan’s work as Clark. And while the first movie was sent to streaming, the current plan from Paramount is to release ‘Rainbow Six’ theatrically.
Stahelski is certainly a good choice for an action movie like this––the former stuntman has spent the last few years bringing the ‘John Wick’ films to life after co-directing the first one. Since then, his fellow director David Leitch has gone further afield with the likes of ‘Atomic Blonde’ and ‘Bullet Train’.
Yet while he’s been in a ‘Wick’ frame of mind (Chapter 4 arrives on March 24th), Stahelski has also been developing other projects, including a ‘Highlander’ reboot. He’s also active as a producer on movies such as ‘Day Shift’ and Halle Berry MMA drama ‘Bruised’.
Given the busy schedule of the leading man (Jordan has ‘Creed III’, which also marks his directorial debut, due on March 3rd) and the newly recruited director, it’s anyone’s guess when ‘Rainbow Six’ might be ready for release, but this is certainly positive forward movement.
