The magazine will be available this thursday, if anyone can scan it, I’d be forever grateful! I don’t get the magazine here

Empireonline.com Exclusive: ‘I’m very sensitive to it.’

There are casting calls so controversial that they look likely to reduce the internet to a smoking wasteland of charred avatars and ashen memes. Michael Keaton as Batman, Daniel Craig as Bond, The Last Airbender… that kind of thing. It’s fair to say that the choice of Tom Cruise to play Lee Child’s towering do-gooder Jack Reacher in One Shot has smoke pouring out of the web again.

With the movie currently filming in Pittsburgh, Empire tracked the man down to ask about the farrago. “Firstly, I’m very sensitive to it,” Cruise explained, revealing that Child came to watch his readings. “This is Lee’s book and Lee’s character. Him giving me his blessing is what made me do it. If he hadn’t then I wouldn’t have done it.”

And what of the discrepancy in height – Cruise giving away more than a few inches to the clock-brained legend? “Lee told me that the reason he wrote him that size (6′ 5″) is because that was just one element to his character, and that opened the door to me playing him.”

As Cruise himself is quick to point out, he’s no stranger to controversial casting. His pick to play Lestat in Neil Jordan’s Interview With The Vampire may have been pre-trolling, but it still caused a stink with fans of Anne Rice’s novel – and, briefly, with the writer herself.

No-one should doubt the actor’s commitment to the role, though. “Reacher is such a great character,” he enthused. “He doesn’t have a cell phone, he doesn’t have email. He’s off the grid. He pays for things in cash. People look at things through the prism of the colours of their life, but Jack Reacher does things the way we want to sometimes. In that sense he’s sort of a Dirty Harry, a James Bond, a Josey Wales.”

Source: Empireonline.com

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DEADLINE EXCLUSIVE: Rosamund Pike is negotiating for the female lead opposite Tom Cruise in One Shot, the Christopher McQuarrie-directed adaptation of the bestselling Lee Child novel series for Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. Pike was among a small group of actresses vying for the role. The British actress played Andromeda in Clash of the Titans 2, and she recently wrapped the David Frankel-directed The Big Year opposite Owen Wilson, Jack Black and Steve Martin, and the Rowan Atkinson comedy Johnny English Reborn.

Cruise is playing Jack Reacher, the retired military policeman who wanders the country with only his passport, bankbook, toothbrush and the clothes on his back. He finds his way into scrapes, taking the side of the underdog. In One Shot, Reacher investigates a case in which a lone sniper murders five victims before being captured. Reacher discovers it’s more than a simple open-and-shut case.

Pike will play Helen Rodin, a local defense attorney defending the man arrested for the shootings. She works with Reacher to bring the true culprits to justice. Don Granger and Cruise will produce through Mutual Film Company and C/W Productions. Skydance’s David Ellison and Dana Goldberg are producing as is Gary Levinsohn and Paula Wagner, and Ken Kamins is exec producer. UTA reps Pike with Shelly Browning and UK-based Dallas Smith.

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Tom Cruise may find his latest leading lady this weekend.

Cruise is gearing up to make One Shot, a Paramount-Skydance adaptation of a 2005 Lee Child crime thriller. Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote Cruise’s Valkyrie movie, penned the script and is directing

On Saturday, McQuarrie and the studio were reading at least three actresses for the female lead: Hayley Atwell, Alexa Davalos and Rosamund Pike.

Atwell is best known to US audiences as the female lead opposite Chris Evans in Captain America.

Davalos last appeared in Clash of the Titans as Andromeda and counts Defiance, The Mist and The Chronicles of Riddick amongst her credits.

Pike drew acclaim for her work in the British movie Made in Dagenham and Barney’s Version. She also appeared with Carey Mulligan in An Education. One Shot centers on a Jack Reacher, an ex-Army cop who gets sucked into the mystery surrounding the arrest of a sniperaccused of killing five random people in a shooting. The female role is that of tough lawyer and daughter of the discrict attorney.

The studio is said to be seeking a pedigreed yet non-A-list actress for the movie. Brit Marling was an early favorite but sources say her schedule didn’t work

The studio is eyeing a fall shoot in Pittsburgh. Paramount had no comment.

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