The Interwebs were abuzz this weekend with the news that Tom Cruise, actor and couch-jumper, had signed to play Jack Reacher, the military-police-officer-turned-drifter in a series of 15 (soon to be 16) books by author Lee Child. Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie will adapt Child’s “One Shot.”

Child’s books fall into the crime novel genre, although Reacher is no standard PI or cop. He’s more like a modern-day Japanese warrior, traveling (usually on foot or by bus) around the US. He carries little more than an ATM card and a toothbrush. He doesn’t believe in the ties that bind. He doesn’t even believe in luggage: Reacher travels with nothing more than the clothes on his back, wearing them for a couple of days then buying new ones that suit whatever his locale is at the time.

Of course, like Lassie and the TV version of the Hulk, Reacher’s travels usually bring him into contact with someone who needs his help or a wrong that needs righting. Sometimes he works with local authorities, sometimes against, always exacting justice. But you always get the feeling that no matter how efficient a killing machine Reacher is, he’d rather just be left alone to travel around the countryside.

I can totally see Cruise – who has become more of a celebrity oddity and less of an admired actor in recent years – playing this type of character. But he can’t play it as a typical Cruise “high beam smile” character. Reacher is as quiet as he is capable.

The casting is odd, however, in that much of Reacher’s character is established by how he looks. To quote Lee Child’s website:

Name: Jack Reacher (no middle name)
Born: October 29th
Measurements: 6’5″, 220-250 lbs., 50″ chest
Hair: Dirty-blond
Eyes: Ice blue
Clothing: 3XLT coat, 95 cm. pants’ inseam

Hmmm. Anybody see any discrepancy there? Possibly the idea that Reacher is supposed to be 8-10 inches taller than Cruise and 100 pounds heavier?

Child is said to be pleased with the casting, and I’m sure he is. Cruise will likely draw a lot of moviegoers. And the fact that we’re already talking about the movie, which hasn’t even begun filming, says a lot.

It’s possible that the millions of people who will see the movie won’t care about the physical differences between the character on the printed page and the actor. And Cruise might just bring it. I hope so.

A longtime buddy out in LA posted something on Facebook this morning about the upcoming “Captain America” movie – which opens Friday – and how it ties in to the “Avengers” movie coming out next May.

And the Twitterverse and blogworld are full of spoilers about the two movies this morning. Obviously some screenings have been going on and people are spilling secrets.

I’m wading through the Internets kind of cautiously. I do enjoy spoilers, to some extent, but mostly as an appetizer for a movie, TV show or even book. I don’t want them in place of the main dish.

But I’ll admit all the geeky goodness is building my anticipation for “Captain America.” My loved ones are already sick of hearing me say how, when I was an elementary school kid, the earth was young and dinosaurs roamed the landscape, I never expected big-screen versions of the comic book heroes I loved as a kid. Sure, cheap cartoon versions. Maybe low-budget TV shows where Superman’s flying scenes were accomplished by having the actor lie on a glass coffee table. But big-budget movies? That just didn’t seem possible.

Anyway, I’ll try to keep my geekticipation in check this week. Still five more days, after all.

I don’t watch a lot of SyFy, or whatever they call the current-day incarnation of the Sci-Fi Channel. I liked the channel a lot, back in its low-rent days, when it could be counted on for lots of reruns of cheesy old TV shows and MST3K. I really, really miss MST3K.

I fell behind on “Battlestar Galactica” and never caught up, frak it all, and most of the channel’s programming now leaves me cold. I don’t care about the 18th variation on ghost-hunting shows. I admit I like “Hollywood Treasure” because I know a few people in LA who have, at times in the past, done a bit of movie memorabilia collecting.

So I was pleasantly surprised by “Alphas,” the channel’s new show about a team of superhumanly gifted operatives who solve crimes or prevent crimes or whatever beyond-the-capabilities-of-the-proper-authorities occasion is at hand.

The show throws in a bit of “Hellboy,” leavened with “Heroes” and “X-Men” and “Fringe” and, believe it or not, “Big Bang Theory,” the latter manifesting in a somewhat Sheldon-like geek who can see electromagnetic waves and read texts, phone calls, computer screens and the like without benefit of hardware. He is not, however, much of a social animal.

The other members of the team are super strong or super observant or super accurate in throwing or super good at manipulating people. Although the latter operative is a hot Jersey-ish chick who wears low-cut tops, so I’m not sure how much extrasensory power is in play there.

I’ve only seen the pilot for “Alphas” so far, but it was pretty fun and did a good job mixing all its influences but at the same time adding a few elements of its own. I’ll check it out again and maybe this time I’ll keep up as I couldn’t manage to with “Galactica.”