Cruise
Everyone’s favorite rugged sleuth now has a face: Tom Cruise will play Jack Reacher in a film based on Lee Child’s One Shot. From the actor’s official website: “[We are] excited to confirm that Tom Cruise will play the rugged Jack Reacher in the movie ‘One Shot,’ adapted from the 2005 Lee Child novel.”
Not everyone is so excited. Most are citing Cruise’s short stature and everyman persona as traits that make him exactly wrong to play Reacher. “[I]f you’re casting Jack Reacher, a French/American ex-military cop who stands 6’5″ and often breezes into any given burg looking like a giant disheveled blond bum, then Tom Cruise is the opposite of the man you should be looking for,” states slashfilm in a post that doesn’t mince words.
EW’s Popwatch is more enthusiastic. “Reacher is like a grittier, real-world version of Ethan Hunt from the Mission: Impossible series — he drifts from town to town with no luggage, pitching in to help crime victims, and using his military training and resourcefulness to get out of jams.” Lee Child also approves. ”Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way,” the author told Deadline.
a few of the books by Child reviewed by BookPage
Cruise was pretty good in the MI movies, so maybe he’s got a shot here. The film starts shooting September 27 in Philadelphia—which, coincidentally, is the day the 16th Reacher novel, The Affair, will be published by Delacorte.
Just one question remains: where does Cruise as Reacher lie on the scale of book-to-film casting nightmares?* Weigh in in the comments!
*said scale running from 1 (Tilda Swinton as Eva in We Need to Talk About Kevin) to 10 (Katherine Heigl as Stephanie Plum).
Tom Cruise CAN NOT be Jack Reacher. What a mis-cast. I can’t even see the movie now it would ruin the whole Jack Reacher series for me and I love Jack Reacher!!
Definitely a mis-casting. One of the great things about Reacher’s character is his size. It’s what makes his exploits more believable.
Lee Child also approves. ”Reacher’s size in the books is a metaphor for an unstoppable force, which Cruise portrays in his own way,” the author told Deadline.
Maybe to men his size is a metaphor, but for the women it makes him a hunk!
cruise as reacher is a travesty an epic fail the worst miscast ever reacher uses brute force physical intimidation and his massive size as well as his brain to save the day cruise can’t play reacher because he can’t physically be reacher and reacher’s size has everything to do with who he is and how he gets things done you cant take the giant out of reacher and still make him reacher so the movie won’t really be a jack reacher movie and i won’t see it