Ben Affleck, who was dubbed the next Harrison Ford by Miramax boss Bob Weinstein some years ago, seems the hot favourite to step into Ford's shoes to play Jack Ryan in the next Tom Clancy adaptation, The Sum of All Fears.

Ford announced earlier this month that he would not be reprising the role of the family-loving CIA agent after he met with director Phillip Noyce, who directed the star in his previous two outings as Ryan, and they couldn't agree on a script.

The only problem could be that Harrison was 52 when he last played Ryan in Clear and Present Danger in 1994, while Affleck is a mere 27 years old. Also, it is not clear how the film will deal with Ryan's family: Anne Archer has played Ryan's wife in both the Ford films and his daughter, 18-year-old American Beauty star Thora Birch is now all grown up and getting on with her own film projects. It has been suggested that the new film will take a "Jack Ryan - The Early Years" slant.

There are also rumours emanating from Mr Showbiz that although time and money have been invested into The Sum of All Fears, there is a chance that the project will be ditched in favour of bringing back an earlier Jack Ryan adventure such as The Cardinal and the Kremlin, which would be a way of getting around the age difference.

Ford was not the first actor to play Jack Ryan. Alec Baldwin first brought the role to the big screen in The Hunt for Red October in 1990, and the word is that Clancy always favoured Baldwin over Ford to play his rugged hero. The writer will be launching its latest Ryan book this August, entitled The Bear and the Dragon.