‘Jack Reacher’ author praises recasting Tom Cruise for a taller actor

nypost.com:

Amazon Prime Video series based on his books.Childs is happy that the TV show chose a different actor to play Reacher after Tom Cruise played him in two films.Fans were concerned over Cruise’s height, as Reacher is described in one book as “extremely tall, extremely broad, long-armed and long-legged,” with “hands the size of dinner plates.”Alan Ritchson — who is 6-foot-2 — stars in the new series as the titular character, while Cruise, 59, stands at 5-foot-7.Childs is an executive producer on the project and spoke to Metro about his thoughts on the recasting. “There was criticism from the book fans because they had built up a very clear image of what Reacher should look like,” Childs said. “It just became a different proposition and I guess the opportunity of thinking ‘Alright, we can get a much bigger guy so the book fans are going to be happy,’” the writer continued. “But we’re also focusing on the non-book readers.

What do they need? They need just great entertainment, they don’t have the reference already and so we also had to satisfy them.”Childs added that he understood what viewers wanted; however, he is a fan of Cruise’s work. “I think that the size thing is important to certain parts of the narrative,” he said. “Reacher has got to scare people, and you can do that so much easier with one glance of this huge animal rather than a normal-sized actor.”Ritchson, 37, recently spoke with The Post about his new role and how his size was a big asset. “I put on 30 pounds for the role.

I feel really good. This is my natural size, and it just feels nice to be able to be me,” he explained.“Of course, there’s the physicality.