While there has been plenty of negative outcry about the vertically-challenged Tom Cruise playing hulking military policeman turned vigilante drifter/investigator Jack Reacher in the adaptation of Lee Child’s One Shot, Cruise and writer/director Chris McQuarrie are ploughing on ahead regardless. And now they’re busy narrowing down who will play the female lead, with Hayley Atwell, Alexa Davalos and Rosamund Pike all in the running.

Atwell, of course, is currently on screens as Peggy Carter in Captain America: The First Avenger. Pike has nabbed recent acclaim for her work in Barney’s Version and, before that, An Education. And then there’s Davalos, who has the likes of Clash of the Titans, Defiance and The Mist among her credits.

While the three are all seemingly frontrunners, it’s still possible that a dark horse could sneak in and take the role being tested, that of a tough lawyer and daughter of a district attorney who crosses paths with Reacher. The story finds him getting dragged into the mysterious circumstances of a sniper arrested for the alleged killing of five random people.

McQuarrie is aiming to start shooting this autumn in Pittsburgh.