Fresh from a TV hit with The Hatfields And The McCoys, and from his stint as Superman's adoptive dad in Man Of Steel, Kevin Costner is now eyeing roles in the Jack Ryan reboot and the Luc Besson-produced thriller Three Days To Kill.

Jack Ryan is now fully underway at Paramount after a rocky couple of years, with Chris Pine still attached as the lead, and Kenneth Branagh now set both to direct and to play the villain. Costner's potential role is described as "co-lead", as Ryan's CIA handler and mentor.

At first glance that suggests Admiral James Greer, who's African American in the Tom Clancy novels, and was played in The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger by James Earl Jones. It's not unthinkable that Greer could be re-cast in that way, but Deadline suggest that Jones will actually make an appearance in the new film, making Costner's role similar, but somebody else.

Three Days To Kill, meanwhile, sounds like a Taken-style action-dad role; it's about a dying government assassin on One Last Mission and determined to reconcile with his estranged daughter at the same time. The character's name is Ethan Renner, which sounds amusingly like Besson having a laugh about the Mission: Impossible and Bourne franchises. There's no director attached yet, but McG is apparently interested...