Deadline New York broke the news that Tom Cruise is currently considering the role of thriller hero Jack Reacher in an adaptation of a novel from Lee Child‘s bestselling Reacher series.

Do you think Cruise could handle this hardboiled role? Christopher McQuarrie will direct the film,  One Shot. Follow this link to read an excerpt from the novel.

Here’s more from the article: “I’m told that the author himself is excited about Cruise playing the role, that Cruise personifies the qualities Reacher displays in the books. As for Reacher’s hulking physical size, Child wasn’t locked into an oversized actor (one reason the film took so long to get off the ground), and it was more about establishing an intimidating presence.”

Actor George Clooney will star in an adaptation of Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi‘s nonfiction book, The Monster of Florence. Valkyrie screenwriters Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander will team up to work on the script.

Grand Central Publishing released the nonfiction book in 2008. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tom Cruise was originally slated to star in the movie–Cruise recruited McQuarrie for the project.

Here’s more about the book: “Preston and Spezi’s book is an investigation into the murderer (or murderers) known as Il Mostro, who killed more than a dozen people from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s without being caught. In the course of their digging, Preston, who had moved with his family to a villa in Florence, and Spezi, an Italian crime journalist, were themselves then investigated by the police.”