I think part of it was because most of the Tom Clancy novels after Clear and Present Danger start to get longer and more complicated with a scope too large to commit to film. For example, Debt of Honor is about a war between the U.S. and Japan. The Bear and the Dragon is about a war between China and Russia (and NATO). That's a hell of an adaptation to cover an entire war from its roots to beginning, middle, end, and aftershocks in a single film.
Plus (as someone else already said) a fair amount of Tom Clancy's works that were more focused around an individual like Jack Ryan tended to be set during the Cold War. So even though books like The Cardinal of the Kremlin or Red Rabbit may be easier to adapt to film, they're still about the Cold War and thus wouldn't be modern. The Sum of All Fears was set during the end of the Cold War, but it was "modernized" so that a nuclear war between the Russian Federation and the U.S. during the 90's or early 2000's didn't have as much sting as the Soviets versus the U.S. Plus they politically corrected it so instead of Muslim radicals it was Neo-Nazis, which could have possibly made the movie more relevant in a post-9/11 world.
Personally I think they should have done an adaptation of Rainbow Six. It's about counter-terrorism and the dark side of corporations which is something people would be pretty familiar with in today's world, and the scale isn't something that can't be fitted to the length of time for a film.
Can't be too careful with all those weirdos running around.
reply
share