Jack Reacher Series (Amazon)

Agent Coulson

Mr E wrote: »

Co-writing the next few I think before Andrew takes over the reigns.

So going to do a James Patterson on it then and get someone else to write your books and stick a co writer name on it to help sales.

Mr E

I think Lee cares too much about Reacher to be as hands-off as Patterson.

Krombopulos Michael

I mentioned in a different thread, but Daniel Cudmore would be my pick. He played Master Chief in the Halo 4 live action shorts, and was Colossus in Xmen - Days of Future Past.

Slydice

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

I mentioned in a different thread, but Daniel Cudmore would be my pick. He played Master Chief in the Halo 4 live action shorts, and was Colossus in Xmen - Days of Future Past.

*googles* Yep!

Either this or a Terminator role! :eek:

Krombopulos Michael

Slydice wrote: »

*googles* Yep!

Either this or a Terminator role! :eek:

Yeah never heard of him before I saw that Halo 4 - Forward Unto Dawn and even though he was in a suit for the entire thing, he was good. Then I watched a behind the scenes thing on youtube on some of the stunts, and it was mentioned that hes 6ft 6 and strong build, so I immediately thought he'd be a good jack reacher.

Agent Coulson

The Rock was doing a Q&A on Facebook today and said the one role he regrets not getting and losing out on Reacher to Tom Cruise.

He said he was made for that role however understands that Crusie was the biggest box office draw in the world back then and he as just finding his feet.


Losing out on that role opened the door to Fast Five for him though he said.

CastorTroy

Watched his video last night about that. Only read a few of the books so far but while Tom was too small, wouldn't the Rock be too big? Though he does have the shoulders for all the shrugging he would have to do.
Has he done any roles similar where he gets to be serious? Maybe Walking Tall though I barely remember that film.

MJohnston

The Rock would be a terrible choice.

Look, here’s my take. Physical attributes of an actor are not that important. You can fake height if needed, and most actors can achieve a wirey physique pretty easily.

What you need to think about is that Reacher is a largely silent character who has a noisy internal monologue going most of the time. When you translate this to TV/movies, this means you need an actor who is excellent at acting with just their face. An action beefcake like The Rock is never going to pull off that kind of subtlety. I actually love the McQuarrie/Cruise movie because I think that while Cruise obviously doesn’t match what Reacher looked like in my head, he got the rest of the character nailed down. He’s a silent, sarcastic man with an inner intensity constantly bubbling away.

The alternative is that you try and find the right actor to portray the image of Reacher, and then place him in a TV show that isn’t like the Reacher stories - amp up the action and just be constant fights and gunfire. Not what I’d want from the show, but it could still be entertaining for some.

I look at what Amazon did with Bosch and I think that’s the right pattern for success. Distill the character down to their most important attributes (tenacity, detail oriented, a bit of an asshole) and then cast someone who can play that well(iver) even if they look nothing like the book character. Keep the *story* intact the most. Physicality mattered much less to Bosch than Reacher, but it’s still the right path for any adaptation imo.

MJohnston

MJohnston wrote: »

The Rock would be a terrible choice.

Look, here’s my take. Physical attributes of an actor are not that important. You can fake height if needed, and most actors can achieve a wirey physique pretty easily.

What you need to think about is that Reacher is a largely silent character who has a noisy internal monologue going most of the time. When you translate this to TV/movies, this means you need an actor who is excellent at acting with just their face. An action beefcake like The Rock is never going to pull off that kind of subtlety. I actually love the McQuarrie/Cruise movie because I think that while Cruise obviously doesn’t match what Reacher looked like in my head, he got the rest of the character nailed down. He’s a silent, sarcastic man with an inner intensity constantly bubbling away.

The alternative is that you try and find the right actor to portray the image of Reacher, and then place him in a TV show that isn’t like the Reacher stories - amp up the action and just be constant fights and gunfire. Not what I’d want from the show, but it could still be entertaining for some.

I look at what Amazon did with Bosch and I think that’s the right pattern for success. Distill the character down to their most important attributes (tenacity, detail oriented, a bit of an asshole) and then cast someone who can play that well(iver) even if they look nothing like the book character. Keep the *story* intact the most. Physicality mattered much less to Bosch than Reacher, but it’s still the right path for any adaptation imo.

Reacher is defined by his size. It influences almost everything he does, from his fighting style to how he gets information (by sheer presence)


It causes him to be over confident at times too, assuming that others will be intimidated by his size and almost got him killed in a fight.



They could have gotten anyone over 1.85m and made it work through camera angles and casting slightly less than average height cast-mates.

And I like the Reacher films (both of them) but they could have been called "Action MP" for all they really had to do with Reacher.

MJohnston

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Reacher is defined by his size. It influences almost everything he does, from his fighting style to how he gets information (by sheer presence)

As an avid reader of the books, I have to disagree. I think Reacher is defined by his training and his upbringing. I don’t ever read them and imagine him as especially physically imposing. For him to be a physical specimen kind of doesn’t gel with how Child has people constantly thinking they can take him on. There’s also times when Reacher encounters character who are physically imposing, like Paulie in Persuader, and it’s played like they’re bigger than him. I get that there are literal physical descriptions of Reacher in certain books, but for me the defining trait is that his military training, along with a certain supernatural X-factor that only protagonists can possess, is why he’s so dangerous.

Die Hard 2019

MJohnston wrote: »

As an avid reader of the books, I have to disagree. I think Reacher is defined by his training and his upbringing. I don’t ever read them and imagine him as especially physically imposing. For him to be a physical specimen kind of doesn’t gel with how Child has people constantly thinking they can take him on. There’s also times when Reacher encounters character who are physically imposing, like Paulie in Persuader, and it’s played like they’re bigger than him. I get that there are literal physical descriptions of Reacher in certain books, but for me the defining trait is that his military training, along with a certain supernatural X-factor that only protagonists can possess, is why he’s so dangerous.

We all create book charachters in our heads and if we forget the initial descriptions or start a series not from the first book we can offer modify the character from how they were written. Game if thrones is interesting because some of the TV charachters will never be right for me and some the image in my brain got changed by the actors.

In my head he's a monster and this is how Lee Child used to describe him in interviews.

So, he’s an ex–military officer, he’s American, he’s alienated, he struggles to participate effectively in civilian society, and he has a plain name.

And he’s huge.

He’s six feet five inches tall, and around two hundred and fifty pounds, all of it muscle. In Tripwire, after he’s been doing physical labor in the sun for a spell, he’s described as looking “like a condom stuffed with walnuts.” No one in his right mind would mess with him. I had in mind the kind of intimidating physical presence that pro footballers have—relaxed, utterly sure of themselves—but in Reacher’s case with a barely visible hint of danger. (In fact, in One Shot, he admits to having played football for Army while at West Point, but that his career was limited to only one game. “Why?” someone asks. “Were you injured?” “No,” he replies. “I was too violent.”

People mess with him because they have to and because they are criminal bullies but not because they think he's a push over.

don't get the huge backlash about the height thing, at the time, or now.

Cruise did a reasonable job.

Much more important to have an actor who is a decent actor and can he move well and convincingly

Read a number of the books but they are pretty crappy books and even in the same genre there are much better books e.g. "orphan x", "victor the assassin" etc.

This sh1t about him buying a new pair of jocks everyday lol

Die Hard 2019

glasso wrote: »

don't get the huge backlash about the height thing, at the time, or now.

Cruise did a reasonable job.

Much more important to have an actor who is a decent actor and can he move well and convincingly

Read a number of the books but they are pretty crappy books and even in the same genre there are much better books e.g. "orphan x", "victor the assassin" etc.

This sh1t about him buying a new pair of jocks everyday lol

So what you are saying is : you don't really like the Reacher books, you don't buy into the premise of a person with no belongings and you think a 11 inch shorter and 40% lighter man in a 2 grand leather jacket is the same basic concept.

Cruise is a good actor but why he thought he wanted to be Jack Reacher God knows. The films are ok but as was said earlier could just be generic MP action hero.

Its the difference between Bond and Hunt and since Cruise saw he'd never be bond he became Hunt.

I've read a broad range of books in the genre and I don't think that they are amongst the best in the genre...


you don't really notice for example the height deficit in the movie due to good cinematography and choreography


most big budget action movie leads / stars are on the shorter side - certainly the majority are under 6 feet.


acting ability and on-screen charisma are far more important imo

CastorTroy

Because of this talk, I'm finally watching Never Go Back.
Decent enough so far

but seriously, if you like this type of escapist writing, I'd recommend giving the "Victor the assassin" and "Orphan X" series a go.

JP Liz V1

Alan Ritchson has got the role

Brief_Lives

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Alan Ritchson has got the role

the guy from Smallville and Titans? cool.... He's a likable chap (from comic con interviews) with the physique needed....

pixelburp

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Alan Ritchson has got the role

I was like "is that who I think it is?" And yes, it's the large bruiser looking fellow. Guy can act too, has a bit of charisma about him too so it's a good pick.

IIRC he was the flashback version of Hitchcock in Brooklyn 99

John_Rambo

He's certainly what I imagined Reacher would look like reading some of the books.

duffman13

Blue Mountain State, hes a gas man but he can act and has the attributes for the the role

EoinMcLovin

He was great in Blood Drive too

JP Liz V1

Brief_Lives wrote: »

the guy from Smallville and Titans? cool.... He's a likable chap (from comic con interviews) with the physique needed....

Yes Alan Ritchson from Titans and Blood Drive

cdgalwegian

cdgalwegian wrote: »

He's been appointed a judge on the Booker Prize. No idea if that has influenced his decision though.

Lee Child of Jack Reacher spam-book fame on the Booker Prize jury.

ok....

John_Rambo

glasso wrote: »

Lee Child of Jack Reacher spam-book fame on the Booker Prize jury.

ok....

They're not serious books, they're a bit of escapism fun. Like a Rocky movie, well crafted for what they are. I think everyone that reads them accepts this. For every Reacher book I read I read a good few "serious" books. But a bit of popcorn is good every now and then!

John_Rambo

John_Rambo wrote: »

They're not serious books, they're a bit of escapism fun. Like a Rocky movie, well crafted for what they are. I think everyone that reads them accepts this. For every Reacher book I read I read a good few "serious" books. But a bit of popcorn is good every now and then!

look I agree.

but the Booker prize is quite the opposite type of book really so a bit strange imo that he's on the jury for that.

John_Rambo

glasso wrote: »

look I agree.

but the Booker prize is quite the opposite type of book really so a bit strange imo that he's on the jury for that.

Fair enough! Didn't mean to come across confrontational, sorry. I guess they're trying to consider more popular reads and a bigger cross section of genres in to the fold. Maybe Lee Child churns out this stuff whilst reading Gravity's Rainbow for some down time!!

Agent Coulson

6ft2 but look looks a lot taller and has a presence of a big powerful man with that All American square jawed you won't fcuk me look, a very good choice I must say on top of being a decent actor.

expectationlost

the books span a lot of time but how old is Reacher supposed to be?

Agent Coulson

36 at the start of the book series.

has anyone tried the "Victor the Assassin" books?

Personally find them better than JR

ixoy

pixelburp wrote: »

I was like "is that who I think it is?" And yes, it's the large bruiser looking fellow. Guy can act too, has a bit of charisma about him too so it's a good pick.

He does particularly well in 'Titans' managing to do scenes against the acting vacuum that is Minka "Dove" Kelly.

Minka Kelly is a charisma black-hole. She ruined that show
She seemed more of a robotic android than the android characters, in Almost Human

pixelburp

ixoy wrote: »

He does particularly well in 'Titans' managing to do scenes against the acting vacuum that is Minka "Dove" Kelly.

Oh she's one factor in why I gave up on that show. She's emblematic of "that" type of female lead casting in US TV. Could be a breakout role for Ritchson if the show does well

Heckler

MJohnston wrote: »

The Rock would be a terrible choice.

Look, here’s my take. Physical attributes of an actor are not that important. You can fake height if needed, and most actors can achieve a wirey physique pretty easily.

What you need to think about is that Reacher is a largely silent character who has a noisy internal monologue going most of the time. When you translate this to TV/movies, this means you need an actor who is excellent at acting with just their face. An action beefcake like The Rock is never going to pull off that kind of subtlety. I actually love the McQuarrie/Cruise movie because I think that while Cruise obviously doesn’t match what Reacher looked like in my head, he got the rest of the character nailed down. He’s a silent, sarcastic man with an inner intensity constantly bubbling away.

The alternative is that you try and find the right actor to portray the image of Reacher, and then place him in a TV show that isn’t like the Reacher stories - amp up the action and just be constant fights and gunfire. Not what I’d want from the show, but it could still be entertaining for some.

I look at what Amazon did with Bosch and I think that’s the right pattern for success. Distill the character down to their most important attributes (tenacity, detail oriented, a bit of an asshole) and then cast someone who can play that well(iver) even if they look nothing like the book character. Keep the *story* intact the most. Physicality mattered much less to Bosch than Reacher, but it’s still the right path for any adaptation imo.

This is well said for the most part but you can't ever get away from the physical description of Reacher. Its literally the hook Child went for. Who arrests the hardest i.e. Seals, Berets ? The MPs'. I love the character and the books but the last few have been pretty bad. He's this mythical superman now going around killing with abandon before leaving town and a love interest behind. I saw the next one is going to be co-written with his son. Feck that.

As you say a lot of the book Reacher was internal dialogue. Thats hard to replicate on screen. The first one was watchable as an action movie in its own right. Never go back was atrocious.

MJohnston

I think the McQuarrie Reacher film is an action classic, like Die Hard levels of just pure enjoyability and so rewatchable. I’ve never seen Never Go Back.

pixelburp

MJohnston wrote: »

I think the McQuarrie Reacher film is an action classic, like Die Hard levels of just pure enjoyability and so rewatchable. I’ve never seen Never Go Back.

The sequel felt like a mid-budget TV pilot, made surreal by Cruise running around within it. It looked cheap, from direction to sets to set pieces. The plot was very "who cares" to be honest. Had the air of being made purely to retain the cinematic rights and nothing else.

Agent Coulson

The movies were grand Tom Cruise action movies however they felt more like Ethan Hunt finding himself walking across America than Reacher from the books for me.

The White Wolf

That dude is deceptively good. I read an interview where he spoke his career early on and the struggles, and you can really tell that he put that into his performance on Titans.

Agent Coulson

The rest of the cast is coming together now.

iZombie alum Malcolm Goodwin, Willa Fitzgerald (Scream) and Chris Webster (The Most Dangerous Game) have been tapped as series regulars opposite Alan Ritchson in the upcoming Amazon original series Jack Reacher, based on the character from Lee Child’s international bestselling books.

Ritchson stars as the title character in the series, produced by Amazon Studios, Skydance Television and Paramount Television Studios. The first season, written, exec produced and showrun by Nick Santora, is based on the first Jack Reacher novel, The Killing Floor, which is set in Georgia.

Goodwin will star as Chief Detective Oscar Finlay, a Harvard-educated, tweed suit-wearing Northerner, Finlay has recently relocated to the small town of Margrave, Georgia to take a job in the Margrave Police department.

Fitzgerald stars as Roscoe Conklin who was born and raised in Margrave, Georgia and is a smart and proud officer in the Margrave Police Department. She is resilient and is intimidated by nothing and no one.

Webster stars as KJ, the spoiled son of businessman and town benefactor Kliner. KJ thinks the town and townspeople, especially Roscoe, belong to him.

https://deadline.com/2021/03/reacher-malcolm-goodwin-willa-fitzgerald-chris-webster-cast-alan-ritchson-amazon-1234719393/

Krombopulos Michael

Agent Coulson wrote: »

The rest of the cast is coming together now.



https://deadline.com/2021/03/reacher-malcolm-goodwin-willa-fitzgerald-chris-webster-cast-alan-ritchson-amazon-1234719393/

Not a bad cast so far.

Without going through everything.. .

Is this basically an anthology series with a different cast, except Ritchson, each season?

Agent Coulson

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Without going through everything.. .

Is this basically an anthology series with a different cast, except Ritchson, each season?

Yes.

Agent Coulson

Alan Ritchson

“It’s funny, I actually didn’t get the role at first. I’m not exactly six foot five and I’m not exactly 250, and I had heard that they were being very specific with their physical demands. After working with Tom Cruise and a lot of fans being upset that he didn’t really have the physicality, as great as he was in the role, they really wanted to get that right. I was like, ‘Well, they wanna read me, but I know they’re gonna find someone like Dwayne Johnson, who’s a huge dude.’ I auditioned for the part and it was good, it was just that my take on it was a little different than what they had in mind, at the time.”

“There was a shake-up with who was casting, so they started again from scratch, and I’d already been passed on, as had everybody who did an audition. But when they came back around, they picked a few tapes that they’d seen already, and I was one of them, so they wanted me to come back and try again, and it worked out. The closer I got to that, the more familiar I became with the Reacher stuff. I’ve really fallen in love. I’ve read the books now and Reacher has some big shoes to fill, metaphorically speaking. I’m just so thrilled to be a part of it. It’s my favorite character that I’ve played yet.”

“I don’t know how much I can say. I’ll say that we’re gonna be doing a book a season, so the first season will be the first book. I think that’s such a great way to do this. I can see why it’d be exciting as a film, but the slow burn is what I love so much about the books. The way that he goes down the checklist and picks apart these cases, you need time. It’s okay to enjoy that. I think spending a season on each book is gonna be really enjoyable for audiences.”

“I was overwhelmed when I found out that it had gone my way. It had been months of pursuing it and campaigning and just continuing to fight the fight. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. There are a lot of different studios and different producers and executives. I’ve been in the business for a long time, but you just don’t know everybody. There’s a level of educating people as to who you are and convincing people that you’re the guy. It was a lot of work and my team did a really great job. My manager had a huge hand in that. So, when it happened, by the time we’d gotten to the end and it was there, I started to feel like maybe it was gonna happen, but it was overwhelming to find out, for sure. It’s a big character and a huge property, so it’s not lost on me, what it is. I’m thrilled.”

https://collider.com/jack-reacher-tv-series-star-alan-ritchson-interview/

Just re-watched "Jack Reacher" 2012 - the cruiser did a great job despite all the whinging and whining about his langer not being long enough or whatever and Werner Herzog was suitably eerie as "the Zec"

worth a re-watch if you've forgotten most of it!

Conall Cernach

glasso wrote: »

Just re-watched "Jack Reacher" 2012 - the cruiser did a great job despite all the whinging and whining about his langer not being long enough or whatever and Werner Herzog was suitably eerie as "the Zec"

worth a re-watch if you've forgotten most of it!

The second one "Never Go Back" was pretty bad though. The source material is one of the weaker books too, I can't understand why they chose it.

Agent Coulson

Big fan of Bruce McGill and I think he fits into a Reacher story well.

Bruce McGill (Rizzoli & Isles), Maria Sten (Swamp Thing) and Hugh Thompson (Chapelwaite) have been tapped as series regulars opposite Alan Ritchson in the upcoming Amazon original series Reacher, based on the Jack Reacher character from Lee Child’s international bestselling books.

Ritchson stars as the title character in the series, produced by Amazon Studios, Skydance Television and Paramount Television Studios. The first season, written, exec produced and showrun by Nick Santora, is based on the first Jack Reacher novel, The Killing Floor, which is set in Georgia.

McGill will play Mayor Teale, the distinguished mayor of Margrave, who comes from a long line of Southern gentlemen who have run Margrave for decade.

https://deadline.com/2021/05/reacher-bruce-mcgill-maria-sten-hugh-thompson-alan-ritchson-amazon-series-1234759869/

MJohnston

Great bad guy - coincidentally I literally just finished watching Collateral again for the first time in years. Solid bit of McGill in that

Heckler

As a fan of the books especially the older ones (I think the last 5 or so have been bad) I was initially disappointed with Cruise as Reacher but have to admit the film wasn't bad at all. The follow up was terrible though. Book was poor and a baffling choice for another film.

I've never seen Alan Ritchson in anything but after a google for me he's more like my image of Reacher. Same age as Reacher in the first books too.

I think the hardest thing to get across from the books on film is Reachers internal thoughts and how he processes problems and solutions. Need to figure a way to do this effectively on screen.

Some very violent scenes in Killing Floor too. I hope these aren't watered down as I think they are integral to Reachers character. This needs violence like Cinemax Banshee/Strike back.

Really hoping this delivers. Its a franchise that would benefit from a series as opposed to a bunch of movies.

CastorTroy

Internal monologue, thoughts or just narration are things a lot of book adaptations have trouble with. Tends to result in info dumping. I guess one example would be the the Robert Langdon films. Langdon would figure something out and the text in the book can explain to the reader how he did it, but in the films, Langdon needs someone he can explain it all to.
The other option is a voiceover. And then there would be some flashbacks.
I'm just getting through them now and finished book 5.