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.