Lee Child Explains Tom Cruise’s Casting

There's a new Empire out today, with Rooney Mara (as Lisbeth Salander) and Daniel Craig (as Mikael Blomkvist) on the front for David Fincher's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – but inside, there's also a great interview with the man behind Jack Reacher, Lee Child, whose novel, One Shot, is set to hit the big screen in 2013, starring Tom Cruise.

We don't want to spoil the whole thing for you, but here are couple of snippets from our tête-à-tête with the best-selling author, concentrating on his opinion of Tom Cruise's casting as the unstoppable man mountain that is Jack Reacher.

"I wasn't surprised [by Cruise's casting] because this was on the cards for a very long time... we've been dealing with his people for six years."

"Obviously, Tom Cruise doesn't match the physical description of Reacher in the books... but the movie is not going to match the book anyway. More than that though, which actor does match Reacher physically? What people forget is that Tom Cruise is quite possibly the best actor of his generation."

But how will Child's Reacher compare to the screen version? Does he expect vast differences – outside of Tom Cruise playing someone who's 6ft 5in?

"If you look at what McQuarrie [One Shot's screenwriter, whose previous work includes The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie] and Cruise have done before, I think this Reacher will be more clinical – the scapel rather than the sledgehammer."

"I think fans of the books will go to the movie and be a little weirded out for the first five minutes, but then the question is, what will happen after the first five minutes? If it's as done as well as I hope it will be, I don't think it will be a problem."

There's plenty more in the mag, which, as we say, is out today!

One Shot will be in cinemas sometime 2013, whereas Jack Reacher's latest adventure, The Affair, is on shelves today.