The last we heard anything about sequel to the modestly performing "Jack Reacher" was that Paramount had put the movie on the "fast track." That was in 2013. But it seems engines are revving for the vigilante drifter to get back on the big screen, and the project now has a director.
Deadline reports that the movie will mark the reunion between "The Last Samurai" director Ed Zwick and that film’s star, Tom Cruise. It’s interesting to note that Christopher McQuarrie—who wrote and adapted the first film, and has been Cruise’s go-to writer for the past little while (also penning "Valkyrie" and "Edge Of Tomorrow") — doesn’t appear to be involved. Could those rumors of rewrites and possible problems about the ending of "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation" have had some merit? The filmmaker denied it but it does make one wonder.
At any rate, Richard Wenk ("The Equalizer") penned the the first draft of the script, which Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz will rewrite. It was previously reported the story will be based on Lee Child‘s “Never Go Back,” which finds Reacher returning to the headquarters of his old Army unit where he gets arrested for an old crime he doesn’t remember committing and finds out that he may have fathered a child. Presumably this is still the case.
No word yet on when cameras might roll, but it looks Cruise will have another opportunity to kick some ass.