Tom Cruise "sensitive" to 'One Shot' Jack Reacher criticism

Tom Cruise has confessed that he is "sensitive" to the backlash concerning his casting as ex-cop Jack Reacher.

The Mission: Impossible 4 star landed the role of Reacher in One Shot in July, sparking criticism from fans of the Lee Child novel.

"Firstly, I'm very sensitive to it," Cruise told Empire. "This is Lee's book and Lee's character."

He continued: "Him giving me his blessing is what made me do it. If he hadn't then I wouldn't have done it."

Cruise expressed his enthusiasm for the ex-cop, likening Reacher to a number of other popular film and book characters.

"Reacher is such a great character," he said. "He doesn't have a cell phone, he doesn't have email. He's off the grid. He pays for things in cash.

"People look at things through the prism of the colours of their life, but Jack Reacher does things the way we want to sometimes. In that sense he's sort of a Dirty Harry, a James Bond, a Josey Wales."

In addition to Cruise, One Shot stars Werner Herzog as the film's villain, a character known as The Zec, and Rosamund Pike as the movie's leading lady.

One Shot is slated to begin filming in Pittsburgh in the fall.