Chris McQuarrie will not be directing the next Jack Reacher film, according to Lee Child.

The 59-year-old author has revealed the director of the first movie, which starred Tom Cruise as the protagonist, will not have the same director due to his other commitments.

Child told Empire magazine: ''McQuarrie is going to be in post-production on 'Mission Impossible 5'. He just physically can't do it. It's going to be a new backroom crew, which I think is good. I thought the McQuarrie movie was fantastic, but let's see someone else's take on it.

The upcoming sequel - which will reportedly see Cruise reprise his role from the first film - will be based on the eighteenth book in Child's Jack Reacher series 'Never Go Back', and he's confessed they chose that to follow on from original because of the range of characters and gripping storylines.

He explained: ''It's almost a three-hander in terms of audience appeal - you've got Reacher, you've got the woman sidekick (Major Susan Turner), and then you've got this strong teenage girl character which they were very interested in.''