Akiva Goldsman Adapting Tom Clancy, a Liefeld Comic, and More for Paramount

Akiva Goldsman, fresh from his writer’s room duties on the Transformers franchise, has made moved his Weed Road banner over to Paramount for a two-year first look deal that’ll see Goldsman directing and producing a number of projects for the studio, including a comic series from Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld, a bestselling novel series, and a few genre franchise-starters.

Strap in, because you’re about to get a bunch of info. Per Deadline, first on Goldsman’s slate is producing an adaptation of Tom Clancy bestseller Rainbow Six, which is a kind of Jack Ryan spinoff featuring that series’ assassin character John Clark (honestly, what is it with Clancy and characters with two first names?). In the book, ex-Navy Seal Clark is chosen to head an international counterterrorism task force. There’s also a chance Ryan Reynolds might play him.

Next, Paramount has acquired the rights to Ologies, a.k.a. those books you’d see on the YA shelves that treated mythological and magical themes like textbook material. The series includes Dragonology, Alienology, Vampirology, and the like, and the plan is for Goldsman to organize a writer’s room to link all these books into something that could turn into a potential franchise. Sounds fun, and also a lot like what Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them maybe should have been, if it had had nothing to do with a larger Harry Potter arc.

Then, Goldsman has also been tasked with developing and directing an Avengelyne movie, based on Rob Leifeld’s comic series about a fallen angel with powerful blood who fights demons on Earth and is humanity’s last hope once Armageddon hits.