DIE HARD, aptly enough, is a franchise that dies hard.
Despite everyone in the world hating A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD, the film still made over $300 mil worldwide, and Fox wants to press on with Bruce Willis in the title role. But how they’re going about it is…suspect at best.
First off, Len Wiseman is the current director, which should already sound off your “Oh, shit” alarms. I know LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD has its supporters, but I (and many of us) find that, and the rest of Wiseman’s filmography, to be uninspired hackery; the man’s capable of turning such notions as VAMPIRES VS. WEREWOLVES and ANOTHER ADAPTATION OF WE CAN REMEMBER IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE into movies that are honestly hard to sit through. So it already sucks that he’s coming back.
But wait. It gets worse.
The idea is to focus on John McClane circa 1979, with a new actor portraying the title role. Willis would return as the character that made him an international superstar, but only in bookend segments set in the present.
So essentially, it’s DIE HARD without Bruce Willis. Which is…I don’t even know what to say. It’s just fucking stupid.
This has so many things going against it (Wiseman, lack of Willis, lukewarm reception of GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD, diminishing response to old-school action pictures) that I’m thinking it might never actually come together. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking; if Fox, Lorenzo di Bonaventura, and Willis want this to happen, there’s a possibility we might actually see another dude cracking wise in a wife beater and throwing down a “Yippie-Ki-Yay, motherfucker!” in a couple of years.
Not even the return of Reginald VelJohnson could get me excited about this one. Anyone out there clamoring for a DIE HARD prequel directed by Len Wiseman with a hot young actor as John McClane??
