Jack Reacher on TV?

The Grauniad is reporting that Lee Child is developing his character Jack Reacher, for TV. The main point seems to be that people don’t think Tom Cruise was right for the Jack Reacher role, because he is too short. It’s a moan I’ve seen mentioned many times.

I’ve not had a problem with Tom Cruise being too short to play Reacher. Yes, in the books Reacher is taller than most of the people he comes up against – and much taller than Tom Cruise’s 5 ft 7 ins, but it wasn’t a deal-breaker for me. I’m a big Tom Cruise fan anyway.

The problem for me was, that the execution of both films – One Shot was filmed as Jack Reacher and released in 2012 and Never Go Back was filmed as Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and released in 2016 – especially the latter, wasn’t good enough. As is often the case, the trailer(s) were closer to what I imagined while reading the books and expected in the films, than it turned out rest of the film was. Probably because in the films we got to know Reacher too well, too quickly. The thing I remember about Never Go Back (a metaphore?), was that Tom Cruise looked tired and – though I understand he does do a lot of his own stunts – looked like he wasn’t that keen on doing those stunts. Or tired after doing them, anyway.

If Lee Child has taken any or all the above onboard, then maybe a TV series will fit the books better. There would be more time to develop the character and the scenario, as there is in the books.

Check out The Grauniad‘s article by clicking on Lee C below