Paramount and Skydance Pictures have tapped newcomer Danika Yarosh to join Tom Cruise’s “Jack Reacher” sequel.
Insiders say there is a possibility her “Heroes Reborn” schedule might conflict with the project, but as of now she is the choice for the role.
Cobie Smulders is also in talks to join the pic.
Ed Zwick is set to direct. Zwick and and Marshall Herskovitz penned the most recent draft of the script after Richard Wenk penned the original draft.
Paramount grossed $218 million worldwide from 2012’s “Jack Reacher,” directed by Christopher McQuarrie from his own script based on the Lee Child series. The sequel will be based on Child’s “Never Go Back,” in which Reacher travels from South Dakota to the Virginia headquarters of the U.S. Army Military Police Corps and finds his new commanding officer has been arrested.
Cruise and Don Granger are producing.
Yarosh was among a group of girls who tested with Cruise over the past month as the actor flew back and forth from filming his drug trafficking pic “Mena” in South America. Sources say her chemistry reads were hard for the studio and actor to overlook and the choice became fairly clear over the past week.
The pic will begin production next month and will look to cast its villain next.
If a deal goes through, the role would mark Yarosh’s biggest film role to date, since she has mostly worked on smaller indies. Besides “Heroes: Reborn,” which bows on Sept. 24 on NBC, her past TV credits include appearances on “Shameless” and “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”
She is repped by Paradigm and Curtis Talent Management.
