Reacher’s Alan Ritchson hails Motor City as a masterpiece after 15-year grind

Alan Ritchson isn’t just starring in Motor City — he says the nearly wordless revenge thriller knocked him back the moment he read it. In a new chat with ExtraTV, the Reacher lead described finishing the screenplay and immediately knowing he had to do it, pointing to its bold choice to push action and emotion over dialogue.

“The second I closed it, my wife had walked by my office as I finished... and I was like, ‘Masterpiece. It’s a masterpiece. I have to make this movie.”

Ritchson also framed the project as a long-gestating Hollywood curiosity finally getting made. He says the script has been circulating for years — a calling card passed around A‑list actors — because of its high-concept hook: a hard-charging story told with minimal speaking.

“People don’t know the script itself has a really storied past in Hollywood. This has been passed through the hands of every leading man for the last 15 years,” he told ExtraTV.

A near-silent thriller

Set in the 1970s, the film follows John Miller, a Detroit man framed for a crime he didn’t commit. After prison, he comes home with one goal: methodical payback. The new trailer leans into the premise — quick, brutal bursts of action in place of chatter — and turns the city’s industrial edge into part of the menace.

• Period setting: 1970s Detroit, all steel and smoke
• Story: John Miller is framed, imprisoned and out for revenge
• Style: dialogue kept to a minimum; action and atmosphere do the talking
• Tone: tight, grounded, and heavy on physical storytelling

Ritchson says the transformation ran right down to the details — altered teeth and period wigs to sell the era — while the performance leans on presence and body language more than lines. The trailer backs that up: a lot of clenched silence, a lot of gunfire, and a lead who communicates mostly with a stare and a punch.