PRESS ASSOCIATION -- Hayley Atwell, Rosamund Pike and Alexa Davalos are all trying out to be Tom Cruise's new leading lady.
The Top Gun actor is starring in new crime thriller One Shot, written and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote the script for Bryan Singer's Valkyrie which also starred Cruise.
Christopher and Paramount-Skydance, who are making the movie adaptation of Lee Child's 2005 novel, have asked Atwell, Pike and Davalos all to read for the role, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
British actress Atwell, 29, appeared in The Duchess and has just had her breakthrough in Hollywood starring opposite Chris Evans in Captain America.
Fellow Brit Pike, 32, is a former Bond girl who appeared the Oscar-winning An Education, and will next be seen opposite Rowan Atkinson in Johnny English Reborn.
American actress Davalos starred in The Chronicles of Riddick and played goddess Andromeda in Clash Of The Titans.
Tom will star in One Shot as Jack Reacher, a former military policeman who becomes invloved in the mystery surrounding the arrest of a sniper accused of killing five random people in a shooting.
Whoever is cast as the female lead will play a tough lawyer who is also daughter of the district attorney.
The studio reportedly want a respected but not yet A-list actress for the role.
The film is currently scheduled to being filming in Pittsburgh in the autumn.