I haven’t read any of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels, but they sound like a perfect example of how Hollywood adapts material with the assumption that any change they make “for the better” will in no way lessen the appeal of the original:
During the last 15 years, many have tried and failed to bring Mr. Child’s iconoclastic character to the screen. Some of the difficulties arose from the challenges inherent in adapting any literary work, but most were particular to Reacher. An unbending nonconformist, his personality runs counter to the prevailing Hollywood notion that a film hero must undergo an enlightening transformation over the course of a picture. Then there’s the matter of Reacher’s size. At 6 feet 5 inches and 250 pounds, he all but demanded the sort of larger-than-life movie actor not seen since John Wayne. Reacher fans are already carping online about the choice of the diminutive Mr. Cruise for the role. There’s a Facebook page called “Tom Cruise is not Jack Reacher.”
Yes, that’s right; Tom Cruise has been cast as Jack Reacher, who is described in the original stories like this:
His arms, so long they gave him a greyhound’s grace even though he was built like the side of a house…. His hands, giant battered mitts that bunched into fists the size of footballs.
Sounds more like a pro wrestler — maybe Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, if they’re looking for mainstream appeal? Vin Diesel? Chris Hemsworth (Thor)?
I have read the books, and it took me a while to become persuaded that Cruise-as-Reacher wasn’t a joke. Later I forgot, and when I saw the “Cruise to play Reacher” stories, I had to convince myself all over again that it wasn’t a spoof.
The film won’t necessarily suffer, though. Reacher’s size comes through most in the way he thinks about himself, and you can’t easily put that on screen anyway. It doesn’t generally work to make an action movie too closely based on a book. (The first Rambo movie, for example, was made from an excellent David Morrell book which concentrated almost entirely on the mental state of, primarily, the sheriff, and secondarily, John Rambo). Midget Reacher will only be a problem for moviegoers who’ve read the books.
The size/self-image thing is interesting to me, as my childhood left me with a clear self-image as a “small person”, though a late growth spurt means I’ve spent most of my life an average-height adult.