Herzog relishes turn as villain in Jack Reacher

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - German filmmaker Werner Herzog is taking a rare turn in front of the camera as a cold-blooded murderer in the new thriller Jack Reacher, portraying a character he calls "the epicenter of evil".

Jack Reacher, the Christopher McQuarrie film which just opened in North America, sees Tom Cruise back in action mode as a former military investigator, after his detour into musical comedy with Rock Of Ages.

This is the first time that Reacher - a popular character created by British author Jim Grant (who writes under the pseudonym Lee Child) and hero of about 20 novels - has been depicted on the silver screen.

In the film, Reacher teams up with Helen Rodin (played by Rosamund Pike), the lawyer of a sniper accused of killing five people and taken into custody.