Does size matter? A tale of Jack Reacher

So, there's a new Jack Reacher book, A Wanted Man.  Oh Reacher, how I love you (and thankyou Lee Child for inventing him)!   For those who don't know him, Reacher is an ex-military cop, the hero of a wonderful set of thrillers where 'men want to be him  and women want to be with him'.  He's a modern day gunslinger, the guy who wanders into town to right some wrongs, then is gone when the job is done.  Oh, and he's described as 6'5", about 230lbs, and built like the proverbial brick shithouse.



My perfect Reacher would be someone like Ray Stevenson, rugged but not pretty, and not super young (Reacher is currently in his late 40s in the books).  <--------     Here's Ray!

And Hollywood gives us this -------->

Yes, you recognise the face, it's Tom Cruise... He bought the rights, hired a director and took the role. Now my initial reaction was utter jaw-dropped horror.  Which part of 6'5" was not clear to Mr Cruise?!

Lee Child has defended Cruise, saying Reacher's size in the books is a metaphor for him as an unstoppable force, which Child feels Cruise can portray.  Reacher himself comments that it's the small, whippy Special Forces guys (who could kill you with one finger) are the ones to worry about.

So, like Anne Rice when Tom Cruise was announced to play the vampire Lestat in Interview with The Vampire, I'm horrified.  BUT, I'm prepared to be persuaded, and I might even get a nice surprise, like Anne Rice did.  She so loved Cruise's portrayal of Lestat when she saw it that she took out a full page ad in Variety to retract her previous comments. 

I loved him as Lestat, but hadn't read the books beforehand.  I'll have to wait for Dec 21 to see how I feel about Cruise as Reacher.  Let's hope he isn't Jack-shit!