Captain Kirk IS Jack Ryan

I think it's safe to say. Paramount and Chris Pine are officially BFFs.

Earlier this morning, it was revealed that the current Captain Kirk was in the middle of hammering out a deal to star in The Art of Making Money for the studio. Now cut to mere minutes ago and Variety reports that the actor is also in negotiations to headline their long-in-development Jack Ryan reboot.

If this follows through, he'll be the fourth actor to play the CIA analyst after Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck. He'd also have the distinction of being one of the few actors to juggle multiple franchises concurrently. Christian Bale gave it a shot on his Batman films with Christopher Nolan and Terminator: Salvation. Needless to say, the latter didn't work out as well as the former.

Interestingly, the article also adds its unclear whether the Ryan reboot (which is currently in rewrite stages and, as of yet, without a director) would film before or after Pine returns to the U.S.S. Enterprise for the Star Trek sequel. Considering that both properties are under the same studio, I think there's more to this than they'll willing to admit at the moment.

This adds fuel to the fire towards my theory that Trek 2 will beam into cinemas for summer 2012 instead of the originally announced 2011. No, I won't shut up about this until Paramount sends some goons over to my house. That or the theory is proven right or wrong. Either one.

In case you're wondering (or care), I do like the idea of Pine in the role. Let's just see who Paramount and producers Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mace Neufeld commission to direct before anyone starts nerdgasming and what not.