John Wick director Chad Stahelski has been recruited to direct Rainbow Six, a live-action adaptation of Tom Clancy’s 1998 thriller novel that spawned the video game franchise of the same name, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Paramount’s Rainbow Six movie will reportedly star Michael B. Jordan as John Kelly, reprising his role as the character from the 2021 movie Without Remorse, also based on a Clancy book.
John Kelly — known originally as John Clark in Clancy’s novel series and in the early Rainbow Six games — is literally “Rainbow Six,” the ex-Navy SEAL and commander of the secret international counterterrorist organization named Rainbow. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six detailed the Rainbow team uncovering a global terrorist plot to wipe out humanity, and the attached shooter video game — released by developer Red Storm Entertainment in 1998 — gave players control of Rainbow team members on painstakingly planned, highly tactical missions.
The book (and film) Without Remorse, served as an origin story of sorts for Clark (and Kelly), who uncovers an international conspiracy while on a mission of revenge. The Without Remorse movie was released initially through Prime Video in August 2021. Response to the streaming movie was mixed, and in Polygon’s review, critic Robert Daniels knocked Without Remorse’s “confusing story, inert action, and limited scope.”
“Without Remorse is rendered as unmemorable schlock due to [director Stefano Sollima’s] inability to map the author’s familiar espionage themes onto a new protagonist with very different story requirements,” Daniels wrote.
Rainbow Six adds to Stahelski’s very crowded directorial slate, which includes a live-action adaptation of PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima, a possible remake of Highlander starring Henry Cavill, and an adaptation of Marc Olden’s Black Samurai novels.
Stahelski’s next picture, John Wick: Chapter 4, is slated to hit movie theaters in March. A fifth John Wick movie is planned.