It’s been twelve years since his little seen, little celebrated directorial debut The Way of the Gun hit theatres at the turn of the century. Since then, Christopher McQuarrie, who is still probably best known for writing the Oscar winning screenplay to Brian Singer’s The Usual Suspects, has performed uncredited rewrites on various Hollywood films, before writing and producing Singer’s 2008 film, Valkyrie – the WWII drama also marking McQuarrie’s first collaboration with Tom Cruise.
Now the latter pair have teamed up for a second time, on a film adaptation of Lee Child’s mystery novel One Shot. The ninth book to feature the author’s popular hero from whom the movie takes its name, McQuarrie’s sophomore directorial effort sees Cruise in the role of Jack Reacher, a brilliant military investigator hot on the trail of a vicious killer who has framed another man for his crimes.
In the lead up to Jack Reacher’s January release, I had the chance to interview McQuarrie over the phone. Check out our conversation below, where we chat about the origins of the project, his on-set rapport with his high-profile cast, as well his approach to shooting what is, for my money, one of the very best scenes to be committed to camera this year.
Tom Clift: Although you’ve been working fairly steadily in the past few years as a screenwriter, it’s been over a decade since you last directed a film. Why such a long break?
Chrisopher McQuarrie: More than anything I would say a failure to communicate. [Laughs] An extreme difference in opinion on what makes a movie.
So does that mean Jack Reacher was a long time in the making?
No, this actually came together remarkably quickly. Post-Valkyrie, Don Granger, who’s a producer on the movie, and who was running United Artists at the time, came to me with the book and said he wanted me to write and direct it. There was very little development, the studio green-lit the first draft. The script was given to Tom in his capacity as a producer, thinking that he wouldn’t be in the movie, but then he responded saying that he wanted to be in it. That made things happen very quickly.
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