'Jack Reacher' is being rebooted for TV because Tom Cruise is 'too small' for the role
The best-selling Jack Reacher novels are to be made into a TV series, following fan complaints about the Tom Cruise movies.
Cruise played the wandering former military police officer in two movies, helmed by Mission: Impossible – Fallout director Christopher McQuarrie.
But they were released to a muted critical and box office response, the second movie Jack Reacher: Never Go Back being a certified flop, making just $162 million.
And that wasn’t all fans of Lee Child’s book series weren’t happy about, which is why the writer is planning a reboot.
“I’ve got tens of thousands of letters saying they didn’t like Cruise because he’s too small, basically,” Child said in an interview with The Observer.
“Part of Reacher’s appeal is that he’s very intimidating.”
In the books, Reacher is a sturdy six-foot, five-inches, while in real life, Cruise comes in at five-foot, seven-inches.
“Even without doing anything, if he walks into a room, people are a little bit uneasy. It was felt that, for all his virtues, Cruise didn’t represent that. So the readers were cross from the beginning.
“That’s the great thing about television, it’s much less star-driven than feature films. So it doesn’t need to be a so-called A-list guy.”
He’s reportedly hoping to sign a deal by November, with 10 to 12 hours devoted to each book.
Child’s real name is James D. Grant, and prior to becoming a novelist, he was a director for TV shows including Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel In The Crown and Prime Suspect.
He penned the first Jack Reacher novel in 1997, called The Killing Floor, and will release the latest story, Past Tense, in November.
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