Chris Pine has signed to play Tom Clancy's signature hero Jack Ryan in a prequel reportedly entitled Moscow.

Jack Ryan hasn't been seen since Ben Affleck buried him in 2002's dud The Sum of All Fears. Now with Jason Bourne and James Bond both in suspended animation, plans are gestating to re-introduce the brainy unsecret agent-like CIA analyst to audiences.

Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirms Star Trek's Chris Pine has signed to play Tom Clancy's signature hero, portrayed by Alec Baldwin in The Hunt for Red October and by Harrison Ford in Patriot Games and A Clear and Present Danger.

"We're trying to get off the ground with Chris Pine. We have a pretty cool script. It's an original story."

Reportedly, the project is entitled Moscow and, if you hadn't guessed already, transplants Ryan to Russia. So far no director is onboard, but di Bonaventura doubts it will be Phillip Noyce, who helmed the Ford-led sequels and just directed Angelina Jolie in the spy thriller Salt. "I think (Noyce) has served his time. I think he wants to do other things."

And if the Pine-led prequel doesn't work out? Jolie's co-star Liev Schreiber says he would eagerly enlist in the Clancy franchise.

"I would love to do the Jack Ryan series, I would love to do that. I played the other one -- I played (CIA assassin) John Clark -- in The Sum of All Fears, but I think Clancy writes it really well. It's still popcorny, but he gets the duality of it. The best liars are the ones who believe their own lies. And the only people that's really true for are secret agents and actors. And adulterers."

ABDUCTION DRAMA: Before his fur flies again in the fourth and fifth Twilight films, Taylor Lautner is spending the summer shooting the action thriller Abduction.

"It's about a high school senior who finds a picture of himself on a missing persons website only to realize that his whole life has been a lie," the 18-year-old explains.

John Singleton is directing Abduction, which also stars Sigourney Weaver and Maria Bello.

MORE PUNISHMENT: Movies based on Marvel's vigilante anti-hero the Punisher have always misfired. There was the 1989 Dolph Lundgren vehicle; then the 2004 incarnation that starred Thomas Jane and John Travolta but bafflingly transplanted the action from gritty New York City to pastel Florida; and lastly, 2008's ultra-violent, poorly-received War Zone, which featured Rome's Ray Stevenson. Yet despite this less-than-auspicious track record, the character may yet again get his own film. That's because as Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told a crowd at Comic-Con last weekend, the rights to the character have reverted back to Marvel, which is now in the business of producing its own movies based on its creations.

CROW ABOUT IT: Speaking of dark comic book avenging angels who keep getting resurrected, the Crow may be getting a boost from none other than musician Nick Cave.

TheWrap.com reports Cave ­-- who's no slouch as a screenwriter, having penned the terrific Australian western The Proposition a few years ago -- is rewriting the next installment.

The late Brandon Lee starred in the 1994 original, which spawned numerous, uninspired spin-offs, reboots and requels.

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Trailers report, reviewing latest movie trailers

Sucker Punch

It's been described as Alice in Wonderland with machine guns. But that logline doesn't encompass the visually ecstatic dimensions of 300 director Zack Snyder's action fantasy about a girl who, in order to escape a mental hospital, flees into a dreamscape of her own making. A blizzard of geek-gasmic imagery follows in the made-for-Comic-Con trailer -- from leather-clad fetish girls to fire-breathing dragons to armed samurai warriors. Looks crazy-cool. And for now, that's enough. GRADE: A-

Tron: Legacy

I preferred the earlier teaser, with its moody undercurrents and staccato bursts of action, but this long-awaited sequel still looks gorgeous and exciting. One potential a: the de-aged Jeff Bridges, who appears more computer-generated than he probably should. GRADE: B+

Let Me In

An Americanized remake of the superb horror thriller Let The Right One In? Put a stake through it, right? Actually, as surprised as I am to admit, it looks nearly as compelling and atmospheric as the original. Better still, it seems remarkably faithful to the story, about a bullied boy who befriends the young girl next door, only to discover she's harbouring a sinister secret GRADE: A-