While Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher wasn’t exactly a big hit Stateside, it did manage to make quite a splash internationally. Made for a modest $60 million and sporting Tom Cruise’s name above the title on all the posters, the movie ultimately managed to bring in an impressive $218 million globally. This success has already resulted in some sequel talks, with rumors of a follow-up beginning back in February, but now, according to Deadline, the project is not just a go – it’s found its source material.
The site’s sources are reporting that the Jack Reacher sequel will be based on the book “Never Go Back,” which was written by author Lee Child and was published this fall. The plot finds the nomadic army veteran anti-hero traveling to a military base in Virginia where he plans to take a woman out for dinner. This plan ends up going all kinds of wrong, however, as Reacher arrives to discover that not only has the woman been arrested, but that he's been charged with assault and that another woman is claiming to have given birth to Reacher’s son (neither of which he can remember). While McQuarrie adapted the novel “One Shot” as the source material for the first movie, he won’t be back for the sequel, as he is too busy working with Cruise on Mission: Impossible 5. The studio is currently on the hunt for a new scribe.
According to Deadline, there have been some rumors that Paramount wants the Jack Reacher sequel made before the next Mission: Impossible goes into production for its 2015 release, but it’s looking unlikely that that’s the case. That said, Cruise is weighing the possibility of making the racing drama Go Like Hell with director Joseph Kosinski before getting back into the Ethan Hunt gear.
While Cruise wasn’t exactly the 6’5”, 250 pound monster of muscle that Jack Reacher is in Childs’ books, I have to say that I actually enjoyed the first film quite a bit when it came out last year and I’m looking forward to a follow up. With McQuarrie out of the picture I’m curious who the studio will go for as a director, but hopefully they’ll find someone with an equal amount of talent.
But what do you think of another Jack Reacher movie? Do you think it should be made? Do you think adapting “Never Go Back” is a good direction for the franchise? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
