Tom Cruise is 'too short' to play Jack Reacher, says author Lee Child

The series will be rebooted for the small screen with a new lead actor

Short straw: Tom Cruise will no longer play Jack Reacher

Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher novels, has said that Tom Cruise is "too short" to play the action hero.

Cruise has already played Reacher in two Hollywood films but Child has now confirmed that the actor will be replaced for an upcoming series on the small screen.

Fair enough, frankly: in Child's books, Reacher is described as 6ft 5in with "hands the size of dinner plates" and "a six-pack like a cobbled city street". Cruise is 5ft 7in.

In an interview with BBC Radio Manchester this week, Child said: "Cruise, for all his talent, didn't have that physicality.

"I really enjoyed working with Cruise. He's a really, really nice guy. We had a lot of fun," the author continued. "But ultimately the readers are right. The size of Reacher is really, really important and it's a big component of who he is.

"The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you're all a little nervous just for that first minute [...] And Cruise, for all his talent, didn't have that physicality.

"So I've decided there won't be any more movies with Tom Cruise. Instead we're going to take it to Netflix or something like that. Long form streaming television, with a completely new actor.

"And I want all those readers who were upset about Tom Cruise to help me out – participate in choosing the right actor for the TV series. We're rebooting and starting over and we're going to try and find the perfect guy."

The first Jack Reacher film was released in 2012 and made $218m (Dh800.7 million) at the box office. But 2016 sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, was a critical and commercial disappointment.

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