Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie once planned a darker Jack Reacher 2, and the book they wanted to adapt can still be handled by Amazon’s Reacher.
Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie’s ambitions for the character were never fully realized, but Amazon’s Reacher can fulfill their wish. The casting of Cruise as Jack Reacher was controversial when it was announced – and remains that way for many fans. Cruise lacked the hulking physique of Lee Child’s literary creation, but his Reacher movies were still successful and brought the franchise to a new audience. The PG-13 nature of Cruise’s film duology lacked the gritter edge of the books too, with the first movie, in particular, feeling like it would have benefited from an R rating.
McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher has only grown in appreciation since it was released in 2012, with the film being regarded as an underrated thriller. It also anticipated the massive success of his collaborations with Cruise in the Mission: Impossible series. In a retrospective interview about Jack Reacher on the Light The Fuse podcast, McQuarrie spoke of his and Cruise’s frustrations with the PG-13 rating on the original Jack Reacher movie and how they desired to make a harder-edged, more brutal follow-up that would be R. For the director, he felt that Reacher could be a “21st Century Dirty Harry.”
Tom Cruise & Chris McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher 2 Would Have Adapted Worth Dying For
The filmmaker had trouble recalling the exact title of the Child book he wanted to adapt for Jack Reacher 2, and mistakenly identified it as 61 Hours. However, his description of the story and its setting makes it clear he’s referring to Worth Dying For, the 15th novel in the series. This found Reacher in rural Nebraska and – and he’s wont to do – wandering into the middle of a dangerous situation that involves a human trafficking operation. Not only is Worth Dying For the tonal opposite of the first Jack Reacher, but the wide-open setting would also have given the character few places to hide.
Worth Dying For contained all the ingredients both Cruise and McQuarrie – who has helmed some great movies – were looking for in a Reacher story and is one of Child’s darker novels. While the movies were produced on a modest – at least by the standards of a typical Cruise movie – budget, the studio still insisted on them being PG-13. McQuarrie felt there was an audience for more intense action thrillers, but since this was before the likes of Deadpool proved this model was still viable, his pitch fell on deaf ears. Instead, he stepped away to make Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation with Cruise, with the Ed Zwick helmed Jack Reacher 2 adapting Never Go Back instead.
Amazon’s Reacher Can Still Adapt Worth Dying For
Amazon’s Reacher recast the title character with Alan Ritchson and adapted the original novel Killing Floor. It was both a critical and ratings success and gave devotees the brutal version of the character they craved. The show’s upcoming second season will adapt book 11 Bad Luck And Trouble, but a future series should cover Worth Dying For. Ritchson’s Reacher feels like a better fit for the story being told, plus it will offer a unique setting after the more urban environments of the first two seasons. Of course, with over 20 books to choose from, it could be a while before Amazon’s Reacher gets to Worth Dying For.
Source: screenrant
