After crime thriller Jack Reacher grossed over $218 million worldwide last year, despite a less-than-terrific $72.6 million haul at the US box office, Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions began to consider the possibility of turning the Tom Cruise action vehicle into a series. Despite initial reports that a sequel was unlikely due to the film’s performance domestically (Paramount originally wanted at least a total of $250 million before they entertained the idea of a follow-up), it appears that a sequel to Jack Reacher is now indeed underway.
Though author Lee Child’s bibliography provided over 16 novels to choose from for a sequel, this year’s Never Go Back has been tapped as the source material for the film. While the project currently lacks a screenwriter, both Cruise and Paramount are looking at getting director Christopher McQuarrie back in the saddle for the sequel.
Though Never Go Back will have to wait until Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 5 finishes filming next summer, fans of Child’s series can look forward to the adaptation, knowing that it’s now in the pipeline. Meanwhile, newcomers to the Reacher series can anticipate another turn from Cruise as a gritty antihero-with-a-heart, typically a winning formula with fans of the actor.
In Never Go Back, Reacher heads to an important meeting with Major Susan Turner at a military base located in Virginia. Things go awry very quickly when Turner is arrested and Reacher is accused of a crime he doesn’t remember. Faced with a different commanding officer and a child he doesn’t know, Reacher sets out on a cross-country odyssey to find Turner and clear his name, all the while staying one step ahead of his enemies. With the FBI, D.C. Metro Police and unknown adversaries dogging his every step, Reacher discovers just how far he’s willing to go to protect himself and his way of life.
With McQuarrie having written and directed Jack Reacher, how do you feel about another writer (and possibly director) taking the reins in Never Go Back? Will this next movie satisfy fans of the series? Let us know in the comments section below.