Back in January, we reported that a sequel to writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher was looking unlikely.  That was also about $50 million ago.  Now that the film has crossed $200 million worldwide, Paramount and Skydance are reportedly in the process of building the scaffolding for another installment.  The previously cited box office target was $250 million, but when you’ve got a proven draw in Tom Cruise (Jack Reacher marks his 19th film to hit that total), it makes those dice easier to roll.  Now that the (anti)hero has been introduced to a wider audience than only those familiar with the Lee Child novels, Deadline reports that the studios are at least running the numbers on the potential franchise.  Let us know if you think they should go ahead with another Jack Reacher in the comments below!

We’ve got some bad news for Jack Reacher fans.  Though Paramount’s feature film adaptation of the popular Lee Child book series character made a respectable $15 million on opening weekend and now stands at just a hair over $70 million for its total domestic gross, apparently the film’s box office performance isn’t likely to warrant the production of a sequel.  The Tom Cruise-starrer was developed as a potential franchise given the bounty of Jack Reacher source material in Child’s books, but a new report states that the current $153 million worldwide total gross of director Christopher McQuarrie’s pic is short of Paramount’s benchmark for moving forward with a sequel, and the possibility of a follow-up now hinges on the film’s performance in other international territories.  Hit the jump for more details.

It’s almost difficult to remember what a hard-boiled, stripped-down, old-fashioned action-thriller looks like.  We’ve become so reliant on CG for our action and jump-scares for our thrills that we forget solid action-thrillers don’t need to rely on gigantic budgets or creepy mysteries to make an impact.  Jack Reacher is that confident action thriller we’ve been missing.  Writer-director Christopher McQuarrie has created a film that almost feels like a throwback in its confident plotting and attitude.  Furthermore, Tom Cruise once again reminds us that we can never underestimate his acting talent, and while he may not share the physicality of the character in the book, the attitude remains.

Paramount Pictures has released six clips and 23 images from the upcoming Lee Child adaptation Jack Reacher. Based on the popular series of novels, the film stars Tom Cruise as a man who exists outside the law and exacts his own brand of ruthless justice. Early reviews and reactions seem to be fairly positive for director Christopher McQuarrie’s thriller, and these clips only reinforce the idea that Cruise was a swell choice to tackle the title role.

Hit the jump to check out the clips and images. The film also stars Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, Jai Courtney, and Werner Herzog. Jack Reacher opens on December 21st.

Some early reviews for writer/director Christopher McQuarrie’s Jack Reacher are now available, with a consensus praising the film’s action sequences and pacing, as well as McQuarrie’s capable direction. Werner Herzog’s rare performance as the villain was also lauded across the board, while Tom Cruise’s role as the titular tough guy hit home with a majority of viewers. Fans of the Lee Child source novels were more critical of Cruise playing the 6’5” enforcer, but appeared to be won over by his on-screen intensity. The film also drew a number of comparisons to classics like Dirty Harry, Bullitt and The Outlaw Josey Wales.

Jack Reacher, also starring Robert Duvall, Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo, opens December 21st. Hit the jump to read some of the early reviews and reactions.

Paramount Pictures has released the first clip from director Christopher McQuarrie’s adaptation Jack Reacher.  The film is based on the popular series of novels by Lee Child and stars Tom Cruise as a man who exists outside the law and exacts his own brand of ruthless justice.  Some fans were upset over the casting of Cruise since the Jack Reacher character in the novels is an imposing 6’5” and 250 lbs., but this clip does a fine job of proving that Cruise’s Reacher is plenty intimidating as we see him take on five “bad guys” at once.  Say what you will about Cruise’s personal life, but the guy always fully commits to a role and I’m definitely encouraged by this debut clip.

Hit the jump to watch the clip.  The film also stars Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, and Werner Herzog.  Jack Reacher opens on December 21st.

Even though it’s in Japanese, this new trailer for Jack Reacher shows off more plot than any of the previous trailers combined. Plus, it’s not exactly light on action either. Director Christopher McQuarrie’s adaptation of Lee Child’s novel stars Tom Cruise as the titular character, a man who exists outside the law and exacts his own brand of ruthless justice. Also starring Werner Herzog, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, Robert Duvall, Jai Courtney and David Oyelowo, Jack Reacher opens December 21st. Hit the jump to watch the new trailer and finally understand what it’s all about.

A new featurette for the Lee Child adaptation Jack Reacher has been released.  The film is based on Child’s novel One Shot, which is one of 16 novels that center on the Jack Reacher character.  In this featurette, the author talks about bringing the wildly popular character to the big screen and defends the decision to cast Tom Cruise as the 6’5”, 250 lbs. title character from the book series.  Despite a grating intro that’s narrated by “Movie Trailer Guy,” the featurette provides a nice look at the film and gives fans the chance to hear Child talk about having his material adapted into a feature film.  Director Christopher McQuarrie was just recently tapped to helm Mission: Impossible 5 based on his work with Cruise on Jack Reacher, so obviously Cruise and Paramount are happy with the film.  Here’s hoping he’s put together a fun thriller that’ll please the book’s legion of fans.

Hit the jump to watch the featurette.  The film also stars Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo, and Werner Herzog.  Jack Reacher opens on December 21st.

Tom Cruise is looking to kick off another action franchise with Jack Reacher, a crime drama based on Lee Child’s book series featuring the title character. While Cruise isn’t the first person that comes to mind for fans of the imposing protagonist, he certainly does prove he’s still one hell of an ass-kicker in these two new TV spots for the film.

From writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, Jack Reacher also stars Rosamund Pike, Robert Duvall, Richard Jenkins, Jai Courtney, David Oyelowo and Werner Herzog. The film opens December 21st. Hit the jump to see the new TV spots. 

Fresh off the smashing success of last year’s Brad Bird-helmed Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, it appears that Paramount and Tom Cruise are eager to get things moving on the fifth entry in the franchise.  The template of the series has always been that a new director steps in each time and puts a new spin on the espionage-centered conceit, and it looks as though the director of the next entry will indeed be someone new to the franchise: Christopher McQuarrie.  Hit the jump for more.

A new trailer for director Christopher McQuarrie’s thriller Jack Reacher has been released.  Like the teaser trailer, the new trailer is predicated on whether or not you can buy Tom Cruise as a bad-ass.  Not an action hero—the character even says he’s not a hero—but as a take-no-prisoners, borderline anti-hero.  Personally, I’m just not seeing it.  I like the premise of an army investigator looking into the framing of a sniper, and I’ll show up simply to see Werner Herzog play the villain, but ultimately, Jack Reacher is looking like it will suffer from seriously miscasting its title character.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  The film also stars Robert Duvall, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, and David Oyelowo.  Jack Reacher opens December 21st.

Here’s what we have in store for our latest poster round-up:

• Iron Man 3, featuring a close-up of Iron Man (fitting, since the film will now be released in 3D).  Starring Robert Downey Jr., Ben Kingsley, Gwyneth Paltrow, Guy Pearce, Don Cheadle and Jon Favreau, Shane Black’s Iron Man 3 opens May 3th, 2013.
• Jack Reacher, the Christopher McQuarrie adaptation of Lee Child’s novel, stars Tom Cruise as the titular tough guy.  The film, also starring Rosamund Pike, opens December 21st, 2012.
• This Must Be the Place, starring Sean Penn as a Nazi-hunting former glam rocker, opens November 2nd, 2012.
• Hyde Park on Hudson, featuring Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt, opens in limited release starting December 7th.

Hit the jump to see the posters and synopses. 

Last week, director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma) tweeted that the production for The Wolverine was headed to Japan for part two of their shoot.  After arriving in the Land of the Rising Sun, a few new photos popped up online: some show star Hugh Jackman sporting Logan’s signature hair style while out and about in Tokyo, and another gives us our first look at model-turned-actress Rila Fukushima as Yukio, a blood-thirsty assassin tasked with killing Wolverine, but who becomes enamored with him.  Be sure to check out some previous set photos from The Wolverine here and here.  Hit the jump to check out the new photos. [Update: We've also got a first look at Tao Okamoto as Mariko Yashida after the jump.]

Though Kenneth Branagh is currently gearing up to direct a reboot of the Jack Ryan character starring Chris Pine, Paramount is looking to spinoff a different character from Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series into his own feature.  Christopher McQuarrie has been tapped to adapt Clancy’s 1993 novel Without Remorse, which centers on the John Clark character.  Clark was portrayed by Willem Dafoe in Clear and Present Danger and Liev Schreiber in 2002 The Sum of All Fears.

McQuarrie, who directed the Tom Cruise-fronted Lee Child adaptation One Shot that opens later this year, will write the script with an eye towards directing Without Remorse as well.  Hit the jump for more, including the possibility of an Avengers-style crossover between films.

While these might not be the most flattering set photos of Hugh Jackman in The Wolverine, fans couldn’t care less.  We already brought you some concept art and set photos from a “Japanese prisoner of war camp,” but now we have some images from the set in the “Canadian Rockies.”  While these photos are actually from the shoot taking place in Australia, it’s been suggested that The Wolverine is following Frank Miller’s early storyline which puts the eventual X-Man in the frozen north tracking a man-eating Grizzly Bear.  Hit the jump to see the behind-the-scenes shots.