Lee Child’s JACK REACHER: Tom Cruise’s ONE SHOT Adaptation Gets Retitled

• Tweet
• Pin It

Child endorses Tom Cruise in title role.

It will come to the surprise of nobody that the signing of Tom Cruise to play the lead role in the film adaptation of a long running series of hugely successful novels has studio executives thinking franchise.  Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels are about as successful as books get these days, and it seems reasonable to assume that the powers-that-be at Paramount wouldn’t mind another reliable box office juggernaut in the stable.

In setting the stage for such a financially luscious possibility, Paramount has made the move to change the title of the first film in the likely series from One Shot (adapted from the ninth title in the Reacher series) to simply Jack Reacher, according to Deadline.  The film is being directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also wrote the Cruise starrer Valkyrie, as well as the screenplay for the recently announced Top Gun 2.

The source article makes a point of describing the height discrepancy between the six-feet-five-inch Reacher character, and the diminutive Cruise.  It is a legitimate observation, as I also have a difficulty picturing Tom Cruise wandering the countryside roughing people up.  At least not in the Reacher mode.  Cruise may come across pitch-perfect as a super-spy, but there is something thuggish about Reacher that I don’t see Cruise pulling off.

Then again, I suppose the guy is a professional actor.

Lee Child doesn’t feel the same way I do.  Child has made it known that he is fully behind Cruise and his portrayal of Reacher, but if you got him in a headlock (as our own Jimmy Callaway has done previously), I imagine Mr. Child might admit to having something of a vested interest in such a rosy appraisal of Cruise.  And if that didn’t work, you could always knock Child out cold and manipulate his jaw and lips manually while utilizing a stock cockney accent for actual confession.   That’s how it’s done in Chicago, anyways.

Jack Reacher is due to arrive in theaters in late December.  In the meantime, the Complex will have you covered for any breaking developments.

3 Comments

1. 

   Nemkes

   May 30, 2012 at 6:04 am

   you should watch this little movie called collateral.there you will se cruise roughing people up in the mode that you like

   Reply
2. 

   Elizabeth A. White (aka All Pu

   May 30, 2012 at 10:55 am

   Nope. They can rename it whatever they want, but Cruise is not now and never will be appropriate to play Jack Reacher. I’m not a Cruise hater, and Collateral is a damn fine movie… but that’s still not Reacher.  The character in Collateral, as dangerous as he is, is still too polished. Reacher is rough. I mean, really rough. And you simply can’t get around Cruise’s lack of physical size. It’s not a trivial matter. Being 6’6″ / 250lb is part and parcel of who Reacher is. Every book in the series goes out of its way at least once to emphasize Reacher’s menacing size, and his ability to lay waste in fights is more down to his brute strength and size than any particular skill or technique. Nope. Cruise just ain’t Reacher.

   Reply
   • 

     Bhamme103

     June 3, 2012 at 2:13 pm

     I’m sick of people questioning the the role a certain actor gets becasue of his size.

     I’m a big fan of the Batman movies and i am sick of people bitching about how the size of Tom Hardy is nothing the Bane from the comics.

     I say, wait for the movie to come out before you judge. I mean (I could be wrong about this) we havn’t even seen a picture of him as Reacher yet. Have we?

     Have an open mind. If Lee Child is happy, so should you!

     Reply