Jack Reacher 2 reaches out and grabs a 2016 release date

September 2nd 2015, 2:39pm

Get out your calendars, sirs and madams. It's time to circle the date for when the JACK REACHER 2 sequel will be making landfall.

Wait… Are they selling 2016 calendars yet? Hmmm… nevermind.

In any event, today Paramount announced that you'll be getting JACK REACHER 2 next fall, with the studio planting its flag in October 21, 2016, for the series follow-up that'll bring Tom Cruise back for the title role. It was a date previously preoccupied by Warner Bros. disaster flick GEOSTORM, but when WB shifted that film to January 2017 not too long ago, Paramount slid right into the vacancy with ease.

As of now, JACK REACH 2's main competition for that weekend will be Universal's OUIJA 2 and Screen Gems' fifth UNDERWORLD endeavor, so perhaps this is a prime spot for Paramount to grow the box office for this budding franchise. After all, OUIJA and UNDERWORLD may be steady performers for their respective studios, but I don't know that they're ready to go head-to-head with a strong Tom Cruise effort.

Ed Zwick, who previously worked with Cruise on THE LAST SAMURAI, is set to direct from a script written by Marshall Herskovitz and Richard Wenk. This time out, the film will be using NEVER GO BACK, the 18th novel in Lee Child's popular book series, as a blueprint for story, although how closely is anyone's guess at this point.

While those details are sure to sort themselves out, the main thing for us to consider is what are we going to wind up calling this thing. JACK REACHER 2: REACH HARDER? JACK REACHER 2: REACH AROUND? What's your best guess at the sequel's title?