Talk about a role reversal.

We’re used to seeing Tom Cruise play the action hero, not the victim. But in new photos taken of the set of the upcoming film All You Need Is Kill, Emily Blunt is spotted holding Cruise at gunpoint.

Captured while filming in London on Feb. 2, Cruise cowed while shooting the scene, but the pair shared a decidedly more comfortable camaraderie once cameras stopped rolling.

The 50-year-old actor plays Lt. Col. Bill Cage, a soldier fighting against aliens who gets trapped in a time loop on the last day of the battle, causing him to relive his own death day after day.

Cruise has been all over the silver screen since his split with Katie Holmes in June 2012. After impressing audiences and critics alike with his hunky performance as an aging singer in Rock of Ages, Cruise played a homicide investigator in Jack Reacher.

Plus, he’s set to star in Oblivion in 2014, in addition to All You Need Is Kill, and Mission: Impossible 5 is scheduled for release in 2015.

Launch the gallery above to see more of Cruise and Blunt on set.

Emma Stone, scream queen? We’ll allow it. On Tuesday, the Gangster Squad actress was in talks to headline director Guillermo Del Toro‘s new haunted house thriller, Crimson Peak. Story specifics are top secret, but we do know that the film is a gothic romance set at the turn of a century, which takes place in the titular house somewhere in England. Stone is currently gearing up to shoot the The Amazing Spider-Man 2. [Variety]

Good news, everybody! A sequel to 2010′s Hot Tub Time Machine is in the works, but this time minus John Cusack.

“Exploratory talks” with actors Craig Robinson, Clark Duke and Rob Corddry have reportedly begun, with Corddry set to develop the story with returning director Steve Pink. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Musician-turned-actor Kid Cudi has signed on to Dreamworks’ adaptation of the videogame Need For Speed. The film stars Breaking Bad’s Aaron Paul as a local street racer who sets out on a cross-country race to avenge the death of a friend. (That was a fun sentence to type.) Cudi will play a member of Paul’s crew. Need For Speed races (see what we did thar?) into theaters on February 7, 2014. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Oscar-nominated actor Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook) has lined up a new film, which actually sounds kinda cool. Bradley is set to headline the WWI thriller Dark Invasion, based on the book by Harold Blum. Cooper will play Tom Tunney, a NYC cop who must lead a task force to stop German spies from terrorizing the States in an effort to bring America into the war. And yes, you should buy your tickets now. [Deadline]

Bad news for Jack Reacher fans: A sequel to Tom Cruise’s latest film is looking unlikely. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the first installment based on the popular series of Lee Child novels has yet to recoup enough at the domestic box office to warrant further installments. Unless the film banks a huge international showing in the coming weeks, the future big-screen adventures of Mr. Reacher will be non-existent. *sad trombone* [The Hollywood Reporter]

That’s a lot of news to process, Movie Fans. Weigh in with your thoughts below. And watch Celebuzz’ interview with Silver Lining Playbook star, Bradley Cooper!

If you’re anything like us, the first few weeks of the year are a tangle of renewed responsibilities, halfhearted resolutions and mostly, desperate need for more days off.

As such, it’s not just a welcome, but necessary distraction to find a movie (or two, or three) to occupy those hours not already claimed by work or a new gym membership – which is why Five Flicks in Five Clicks exists.

Celebuzz takes a look at the week’s top five films – some already successful, others eagerly anticipated – to help moviegoers make their choice when they trek out to theaters over the weekend.

Click here to launch the gallery and see Celebuzz’ breakdown of the week’s films.

Check out the trailers for the films below.

Django Unchained

Gangster Squad

A Haunted House

Jack Reacher

Texas Chainsaw 3D

Let us know in the comments below – which of these cinematic masterpieces makes you most excited to go to the movies?

As the holiday season – and the year as a whole — reaches its final hurrah with New Year’s, theaters are bustling with new, highly-anticipated movie releases. From late-breaking blockbusters to Oscar bait to sleeper hits, there’s plenty to choose from.

And Five Flicks in Five Clicks is Celebuzz’ way of whittling down those choices to a comfortable number.

As The Hobbit continues to perform well at the box office, Christmas openers Les Miserables and Django Unchained have stolen some of that film’s thunder, both critically and commercially. Meanwhile, crowd-pleasers Jack Reacher and This Is 40 hope to capture a share of the market for themselves.

Launch the gallery above to see Celebuzz’ breakdown of the week’s top films.

Be sure to watch the trailers for each film below.

Django Unchained

Les Miserables

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Jack Reacher

This Is 40

Let Celebuzz know in the comments section which of the films you chose – and why!

Between tentpole blockbusters, limited releases and film festivals, hundreds of movies are released every year, often a dozen at a time.

Friday almost invariably unleashes a whole new set of choices on moviegoers, who not only have to choose from these options, but remember what all of them are, while deflecting critical acclaim, marketing muscle — and of course just the business of their daily lives.

Five Flicks in Five Clicks is Celebuzz’s way of whittling down those choices to a comfortable number.

This week, The Hobbit will test its box office mettle as Tom Cruise attempts to continue his winning streak with Jack Reacher. Meanwhile, the comedies This Is 40 and The Guilt Trip duke it out, pitting Seth Rogen against his former director and mentor, Judd Apatow, even as Pixar throws its 3D version of Monsters, Inc. into the mix.

Launch the gallery to see how Celebuzz is breaking down the week’s top films.

Jack Reacher

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

The Guilt Trip

This Is 40

Monsters, Inc. 3D

Which movie will you see this weekend, and why? Let us know in the comments below!

“Tom and I had a very easy chemistry,” says British actress Rosamund Pike. The Tom in question is Mr. Cruise, with whom she stars in Jack Reacher, a taut thriller where she plays a defense attorney who spars with Cruise’s title character.

The pair do ignite plenty of sparks, but there is no actual love scene between them. “We manage to get the satisfaction of a love affair without ever touching,” she said. (American audiences will recognize her as Helen, Carey Mulligan‘s female counterpart in An Education, or as Jane Bennett in Joe Wright‘s 2005 adaptation of Pride and Prejudice.)

Pike, an ethereal blonde, appeared at the New York press conference for Jack Reacher alongside fellow Brit thespian David Oyelowo, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie, and author Lee Child, who wrote the best selling Jack Reacher book series.

The fictional Reacher is a blonde, six foot, five inch brawny behemoth — which has left some fans of the book outraged at the perceived miscasting of Cruise, a brunette who hovers around 5’7″. (Fans also howled because Cruise clearly had an inside track to getting the part — he was a co-producer before he signed on to also star in it).

“When we started to compile the list of six foot-five, 250 pound, blond-haired, blue-eyed, American actors, we discovered that not only were there none, but there had never been one and there were none in the pipeline,” explained McQuarrie. “We knew very early on that fans were going to have a reaction no matter who we cast.”

“So we thought, well, if they’re going to be angry, let’s make sure they’re angry before they see the movie and not after they see the movie. That meant that we could not compromise on any other aspect of the character.”

Author Lee Child, whose books have sold over 60 million copies worldwide, had a different reaction when asked about the casting controversy.

“First of all, I’m extremely grateful that any of my readers are so passionate about it. I mean, the first gold-standard metric that I would have given my right arm for at the beginning of my career was that people were going to care.”

The British-born author compared the changes the filmmakers made to Jonathan Demme‘s adaption of Silence of the Lambs, noting that in the book Hannibal Lecter has six fingers on one hand, and in the movie, he doesn’t, suggesting it was necessary for the book but not for the film.

“I’m confident that 10 percent of my fans are going to hate the movie anyway, because this is their possession and it’s being taken away from them. I absolutely understand that,” he admitted. “But 90 percent of them, if they go with open minds, are going to come out like I did and think, ‘I want to see it again. Right now, immediately! Because it was great!’”

Oyelowo, who played Preacher Green in The Help and also appears in Lincoln, confessed that as a man of color, “one of the things I have an allergic reaction to playing is the mandatory best-friend-cop-detective type, and you will never see me in that movie.”

In Jack Reacher, he does play a detective, albeit one that he sees as “a genuine counterpoint. There is a [Detective] Emerson movie, you know, that is parallel to this, in a sense. And he’s on his own track, and that was a lot of fun to play.”

McQuarrie, meanwhile, was candid, admitting that the movie company’s “unspoken mandate” was not to cast a person of color. The list of actors up for the part were all Caucasian and finally the star of the movie, Tom himself, decreed that Oyelowo should be cast.

“Tom said, ‘He’s really good, just put him in the role’,” McQuarrie recounted. “So David ended up in the movie. Also David is exceptionally good natured — and I’m not! And so I loved coming to work and taking advantage that he is such a good soul.”

Watch the theatrical trailer for Jack Reacher, and then let us know what you thought of the movie in the comments below!

With The Hobbit sitting comfortably in the number one slot this weekend, four films are poised to compete for the box-office bucks necessary to knock it from the throne. All of which makes it unlikely that Gandalf and his crew won’t still be king of the Misty Mountain next weekend, too.

But if any the movies opening this week might threaten the dwarves and their cinematic gold, Tom Cruise’s Jack Reacher is the likeliest contender.

The gritty, action-thriller Jack Reacher is named for the title character in a long-running series of adventures by novelist Lee Child. A kind of modern-day, high-functioning Rambo, Reacher is an ex-soldier with no real roots in the world, traveling from city to city as he’s constantly pulled back into the world of American espionage.

Written and directed by the great Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Way of the Gun), Jack Reacher sees Tom Cruise cast in a role that’s poised to replace the dying Bourne franchise in the category of Movies-Named-After-Their-Heroes. A grounded, down-and-dirty actioner, Jack Reacherhas more than a dozen published novels to draw from for future sequels.

Less grounded – and certainly less dirty – the epic, FX-driven fantasy The Hobbit continues its quest through Middle Earth, having pocketed well over a $100 million internationally in just its first week of release. Reuniting several of the characters from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins long before the formation of the legendary Fellowship that swept away his beloved Frodo.

Celebuzz imagines that with four new films competing to vote-split the weekend, The Hobbit will remain in the top spot with Jack Reacher firmly in second place. Of course, that’s assuming that families don’t flock to see Pixar’s original Monsters, Inc. film in three all-new dimensions.

Which will you see this weekend – The Hobbit or Jack Reacher? Watch the Jack Reacher trailer, and then let us know which film you’re most interested in — and why — in the comments below!

When Tom Cruise was first announced for the title character in Jack Reacher – novelist Lee Child’s iconic action-lit hero – those unfamiliar with the character likely just assumed that Tom Cruise would once again be playing the iconic role of Tom Cruise. Fans of the character and his nearly twenty best-selling adventures, however, quickly retrieved their book of puns and cleverly proclaimed, “Oh, now, that’s a reach!”

Tom Cruise and Jack Reacher, you see, have virtually nothing in common. Or do they?

1. Reacher is a broad-shouldered, barrel-chested six-foot-five. With cold, wintery-blue eyes and blonde hair that grows lighter with each passing novel, Reacher is the physical definition of brute strength.  At slightly-tall-for-a-Hobbit with eyes the color of hazelnut contact lenses, Cruise’s brown-haired, lean-trimmed frame may share the same overall level of fitness, but Lee’s Reacher would detest the level of exercise that Cruise requires to maintain his fifty-going-on-twenty-five physique.

2. Reacher is frequently depicted as being less than agile, trading speed for size, plodding aimlessly along the nation’s highways like some bad-mood Bruce Banner. On the other hand, if Mr. Cruise were any lighter on his feet, he’d be a handsomer version of the Red Bull angel. In fact, we’re under the impression that any T.C. blockbuster is contractually obligated to feature Cruise’s patented high-speed, Looney Toons trot.

3. From knife scars to bullet wounds, Reacher is covered in the physical evidence of his past encounters. Cruise is covered primarily in body lotion. There’s no denying that the version of Reacher we’ve seen in the trailers is far less rugged than the character described in Lee’s pulse-pounding series.

4. Cruise is widely known as the near-perfect poster child for Scientology, a quality what would likely earn a swift nut-shot from the literary Reacher. With an open distain for most religions and organized belief systems, Reacher carries a healthy suspicion of the corrupting power of faith.

5. Meanwhile, what Cruise does seem to nail about the character is his meticulous calculation during combat, swift moves determined by careful thought and aggressive plotting. Cruise’s films often show the actor’s physical thought process as the action escalates, using a location’s geography and available weaponry to his advantage. Reacher is often fascinated by math and metronomic rhythms, an aspect that closely aligns with Cruise’s physical specificity.

6. Reacher is also something of an American gypsy, traveling from town to town, continually pulled into conflict after conflict, not terribly unlike Cruise’s chosen profession of traveling between locations getting into fake adventures. Also, Cruise’s bank account could support about ten million Jack Reachers at once, but who’s counting?

7. While there’s no doubt that Cruise fails to fit the description of Reacher as detailed throughout Lee’s expansive series, we’re equally certain that the quiet, observant, emotionally distant qualities of the character will come through brilliantly. A more grounded, everyday version of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, Reacher is a less forgiving character, but absolutely could be the next Jason Bourne.

Watch the theatrical trailer for Jack Reacher below, and then let us know in the comments: how important are the things that Cruise shares in common with Reacher, and how important are the things that he doesn’t?

This time last year, Tom Cruise returned to theaters with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, which became one of 2011’s biggest hits, as well as the franchise’s highest grosser.

Now, Cruise and Paramount Pictures are hoping to find similar box office success with Jack Reacher. The thriller, based on author Lee Childs’ series of books, finds Cruise going against type as Jack Reacher, a badass former military policeman on the trail of a sniper. The film also stars Robert Duvall and filmmaker Werner Herzog as the main baddie.

Lots of running and punching ensue, but does that equate to a worthwhile time at the movies?

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly

“Written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie (who previously worked with Cruise on Valkyrie), Jack Reacher stumbles around looking for a unifying narrative tone, while the star soldiers on, offering up his generic action-hero stance of calm, opaque concentration.”

James Mottram, TotalFilm

“[Jack Reacher is] a superior thriller,with Cruise and [director] McQuarrie slotting together like a bullet in a clip…Prioritizing intrigue over body count, McQuarrie keeps the action clean and clinical, even if that troubled finale feels like a Call Of Duty free-for-all…”

Peter Debruge, Variety

“Reacher is a brawny action figure whose exploits would have been a good fit for the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone back in the day, but feel less fun when delegated to a leading man like Tom Cruise. The star is too charismatic to play someone so cold-blooded, and his fans likely won’t appreciate the stretch.”

Catherine Shoard, The Guardian

“[Jack Reacher is an] unexpected guilty pleasure full of camp and vanity, complete with hissable villain and heaving cleavage. The film fizzes to life when someone else with a bit of charisma gets a look-in. Luckily, there’s two candidates here: Robert Duvall, as a gummy gun store owner, and, as our mysterious uber-villain, the documentary maker Werner Herzog.”

Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

“Tom Cruise might not be the 6-foot-5 rock described in the books, but he makes the title role fit him like a latex glove in a winning turn that could spawn a popular new franchise for the star, if public reaction to Christopher McQuarrie’s film is as strong as its fun quotient warrants.”

Jack Reacher opens Friday, December 21.

Do you want to see Tom Cruise’ latest on opening day? Sound off in the comments and watch the film’s trailer below!