by Valirie Morgan
Last night’s UK premiere of Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit brought co-stars Keira Knightley and Chris Pine, along with director Sir Kenneth Branagh, to Leicester Square in London.
Knightley turned heads as she walked the red carpet in an understated, yet glamorous, black peplum dress from Proenza Schouler, while Pine looked the part in a brown, two-piece tweed suit by Ralph Lauren.
The action thriller, which is based on the series of novels by Tom Clancy, is the fifth movie in the franchise. In Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, CIA analyst Jack Ryan (played by Pine) uncovers a Russian plot to take down the United States economy with a terrorist attack.
In addition to serving as the film’s director, Branagh also starred as Russian villain Viktor Cherevin. Knightley’s character, Cathy Muller, is the physiotherapist and fiancée of the movie’s title character.
While most of the movie is set in Russia and used Moscow as one of its filming locations, some of the scenery might look familiar to UK audiences. That’s because shooting also took place in Liverpool, Manchester and London.
In a press conference earlier in the day, Pine said that he thinks Jack Ryan could be the next James Bond, but with a different spin.
“I like the fact that he seems a bit more real and grounded than the other action heroes. There’s no fancy gadgets and he’s not a man with fancy suits or Russian super models,” Pine said. “He’s a simple guy who wants to serve and feels compelled to serve, and I think in that simplicity and that every man quality, he could be a professor or the guy you get coffee next to. [It] sets him aside from the trained assassins in fancy cars.”
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit hits cinemas across the UK on Friday. Check out the trailer below: