Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit is a 2014 American action thriller spy film directed by Kenneth Branagh. Chris Pine, Kevin Costner, Branagh, and Keira Knightley star in leading roles. The film features the fictional character Jack Ryan created by author Tom Clancy. It is the fifth film in the "Jack Ryan" series but is presented as a reboot that departs from the previous installments. Unlike its predecessors, it is not an adaptation of a particular Clancy novel, but rather an original story. Pine stars in the title role, becoming the fourth actor to play Ryan, following Alec
Parker (Stark novels character) in "Slayground"), Mel Gibson (as Porter in "Payback"), and Jason Statham (as Parker in "Parker"). Author Dan Simmons has paid homage to Westlake and his Parker character with three hard-boiled action novels featuring the character of Joe Kurtz, a past and current private investigator who spent time in Attica prison. The first novel, "Hardcase", is dedicated to Richard Stark/Donald Westlake. In the third Kurtz novel, "Hard as Nails", Kurtz mentions that he did not know his father, but that he was a career criminal thief who went by a single name and would have sex with women after a job,