John Wick's Chad Stahleski To Direct Tom Clancy Adaptation Rainbow Six Starring Michael B. Jordan

The next big Tom Clancy adaptation has found its director. Chad Stahleski, director and stunt coordinator best known for helming all three "John Wick" movies plus the upcoming sequel, has signed on to direct "Rainbow Six" according to The Hollywood Reporter. "Rainbow Six" is set to be the second Clancy adaptation starring Michael B. Jordan, after 2021's "Without Remorse."

Action-savvy filmmaker Stahleski's participation should hopefully breathe some life into a franchise that so far hasn't made the impact one might expect from the "Ryanverse," Clancy's extensive literary world that features Jack Ryan along with Jordan's character, John Clark. "Without Remorse" was originally scheduled for a theatrical release, but ended up moving to Prime Video, where it failed to stand out in a sea of political thrillers and action-heavy shows. In /Film's review, Josh Spiegel called the first film "a bland throwback to the late 1980s and early 1990s," with a "uniformly pedestrian script."

"Sicario: Day of the Soldado" director Stefano Sollima was behind the camera for the first John Clark film, but Stahleski is set to take over and executive produce alongside Jason Spitz and Alex Young. Jordan is also producing, as are Elizabeth Raposo, Akiva Goldsman, Greg Lessans, Josh Appelbaum, and Andre Nemec. The full cast hasn't been announced yet, but the first film co-starred Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Guy Pearce, and Brett Gelman. Paramount's frequent collaborator Taylor Sheridan penned the script for the first film, but the latest report on "Rainbow Six" doesn't include any information about the sequel story's screenplay.

"Rainbow Six" topped the New York Times bestseller list upon release, and was popular enough to spawn an entire video game series that began in 1998. There's also been talk of a film adaptation since 2017, back when Ryan Reynolds' name was in the running for the lead role. THR reports that Paramount's current plan is to release "Rainbow Six" theatrically, but that's subject to change.

It's unclear at this point how closely "Rainbow Six" will follow the plot of Clancy's novel, but if it does hew close to the source material, all involved will have to be careful about the way the film handles its tricky subject matter. Namely, the book involves a vast conspiracy, one that centers around a deadly virus that's purposely released as part of a scheme to kill off a large part of the world's population with a sham vaccine.

I frankly don't know how any of this can be done on screen in 2023 without dangerously stoking the flames of conspiracy among viewers who are eager to find support for their unfounded claims, but there's also no confirmation that the film will adhere closely to these elements of book's plot.

"Rainbow Six" has no set release date.