“Reacher” Season 4 Shooting & Story Talk

Amazon
When it comes to adapting a literary work for the screen, it’s often a choice these days between film and television with the latter becoming more and more popular.

As TV production values (and budgets) have increased to be much more cinematic, big screen talent both in front of and behind the camera have flocked to TV. Meanwhile episode counts have shrunk to the point that a limited series or single season these days can essentially be a film with a much roomier runtime.

Amazon Prime Video’s “Reacher” is an interesting example of that. Author Lee Child’s book series has been translated to both big screen in the mid-2010s with Tom Cruise in the lead, to the small screen with Alan Ritchson playing the role and with the author involved behind-the-scenes on both.

Child, out promoting the third season of the TV series and speaking with Tech Radar, certainly has his preference:

“My preference is for streaming television. Simply for that running time you’ve got. It’s such a luxury. Feature films are so tight that it’s an absolute joy to have time to do all the little bits, the quiet bits, the fun bits, and the tender bits. You know, that feels great. I’m absolutely convinced no book author would ever do a feature film in preference to that. There are some great, great movies, of course, but they’re very different from the books. Whereas the streaming seasons can be very faithful to the books.”

The third season adapts Child’s novel “Persuader,” one of about two dozen or so Reacher novels written so far. That leaves plenty of material not yet adapted for the screen, but could the TV show come back around and tackle the books “One Shot” and “Never Go Back” which served as the source material for the Cruise films? Child’s open to the possibility, saying he doesn’t think those stories have been ‘done’:

“In my mind, they’re not done now. I would revisit them absolutely, but I think not as a matter of urgency. Let’s do something that hasn’t been done in any medium yet. But yeah, I would certainly do the ones that were features, but they’re on the back burner, rather than the next one.”

So the obvious questions arise as to what will serve as the source material for the fourth season and when can we expect it? The show was already renewed for a fourth season back in October, and Child says not only has the book been selected but the whole season’s scripts are done:

“That’s already decided and prepared in advance. It’s written and it’s ready to go. It’s going to start shooting in the summer. The speculation of what next would really be about season five. And, you know, let’s hope that happens.”

“Reacher” will continue airing new episodes throughout this month with the finale to drop on March 27th for those waiting to binge watch.