by: S. Scott Stanikmas

Tom Cruise is reteaming with his Last Samurai director Ed Zwick on the sequel to his 2012 action flick Jack Reacher.

Deadline is reporting that Zwick will not only helm the film but he’s going to take a turn at re-writing the script (by Equalizer scribe Richard Wenk) with Marshall Herskovitz. Christopher McQuarrie, writer and director of the first film, will return in an executive producer capacity.

Jack Reacher is based on the Lee Child series of novels starring a former Military Policeman of the same name. The first movie was based on the ninth book, One Shot. It’s being said the the second installment will be based on the 18^th novel, Never Go Back. Deadline described the story the following way:

In it, Reacher heads back to his old military base in Virginia to take a woman to dinner who is now the commanding officer. By the time he gets there, she has been arrested, and Reacher finds himself being charged with pummeling one guy and fathering a child with a woman. He can’t remember either transgression but gets to the bottom of it with cunning and sometimes brute force.

Even though the film only grossed $80M domestically on a $60M budget, it garnered another $138M worldwide for a total of $218M. So, although a lot of people said they had problems believing Cruise as the main character, he made them believers to the tune of a sequel commitment from Paramount. Having never readthe books, I thought the film was solid. Cruise was suitably charming and badass and I loved Rosamund Pike and it’s one of the few times I didn’t dislike Jai Courtney. I mean, I still disliked him, but he suited that character perfectly.

I can’t wait to see Cruise step back into Jack Reacher’s shoes, how about you?