221 replies to this topic

[SecretAgentFan]

Die Hard in Japan? Yeah, I like that idea. Still needs a more specific setting, though: it's hard to beat a skyscraper-then-an-airport.

How about chucking him in a prison? Do the wrongful arrest thing, then stick him in some massive prison, fighting the inmates all the way, riots etc. then inevitably some terrorists/thieves turn up for some reason. Oh I dunno.

Set in a prison? BEST IDEA for a new DIE HARD ever!!!!!!!!!!

[Safari Suit]

Then again The Rock, Half Past Dead, Top of the World... that's the problem with Die Hard as a series, the first two have been copied so much that any variation on the original theme you could think of has probably already been done. I believe this is even why With a Vengeance moved away from the "confined space" theme, and that was fifteen years ago.

[DamnCoffee]

Bruce Willis has hinted that a fifth Die Hard movie will soon be moving forward. Speaking to MTV, Willis revealed that news about the next outing for John McClane is "imminent". He said: "It's imminent. The coin is about to drop in the slot machine." When sked if Die Hard 4.0 helmer Len Wiseman is likely to return to the director's chair, Willis replied: "Don't know. Don't know if we've gotten that far..." Hitman screenwriter Skip Woods is currently working on the script for Die Hard 5.

BRILLIANT!

[Gogol Pushkin]

Bruce Willis has hinted that a fifth Die Hard movie will soon be moving forward. Speaking to MTV, Willis revealed that news about the next outing for John McClane is "imminent". He said: "It's imminent. The coin is about to drop in the slot machine." When sked if Die Hard 4.0 helmer Len Wiseman is likely to return to the director's chair, Willis replied: "Don't know. Don't know if we've gotten that far..." Hitman screenwriter Skip Woods is currently working on the script for Die Hard 5.

BRILLIANT!

If Wiseman doesn't come back, who does everyone else think would be good choice of director for number five.

[Harmsway]

Skip Woods of HITMAN? Bah.

[Gogol Pushkin]

Skip Woods of HITMAN? Bah.

Haven't seen Hitman myself, but anything I heard wasn't great.

[DamnCoffee]

I thought HITMAN and THE A TEAM were good fun, actually. DIE HARD isn't meant to me anything deep and thoughtful. It's just an action movie, with an insanely brilliant plot.

[Loomis]

Woods also wrote SWORDFISH and X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE.

Yeah, I know.

[Harmsway]

It's just an action movie, with an insanely brilliant plot.

Well, we can count out the "insanely brilliant plot" if Skip Woods is the screenwriter. Or even enjoyable humor.

I predict DIE HARD 5 will be more or less just as flaccid as LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD, but with a grittier edge.

[tdalton]

Woods also wrote SWORDFISH and X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE.

Yeah, I know.

Well, any excitement I had for DIE HARD 5 is gone now. HITMAN and SWORDFISH are two of my least favorite action films ever (SWORDFISH is one of the few films I actually considered walking out on in the theater), and the little bit I saw of X-MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE was pretty awful as well.

[DamnCoffee]

What did you think of, THE A TEAM, Tdalton?

[tdalton]

What did you think of, THE A TEAM, Tdalton?

Haven't seen it. Might Netflix it when it comes out on Blu-ray, but really didn't have much interest in it when it was released.

[DamnCoffee]

I was exactly the same. I wasn't that interested either, but I got dragged to watch it. I found it highly enjoyable. Great popcorn film.

[killkenny kid]

I was exactly the same. I wasn't that interested either, but I got dragged to watch it. I found it highly enjoyable. Great popcorn film.

Same here, better than I thought it was going to be, who knew.

[The Shark]

I thought HITMAN and THE A TEAM were good fun, actually. DIE HARD isn't meant to me anything deep and thoughtful. It's just an action movie, with an insanely brilliant plot.

HITMAN - Good fun?

I thought it was one of the most tedious, headache inducing, depressing, humourless, portentous, soulless, action pictures in recent years. And considering the modern climate of action cinema, that's saying something.

[DamnCoffee]

Well that's your opinion. But personally, I really enjoyed it.

[Safari Suit]

Hitman was (just about) passable. I really disliked Swordfish and Wolverine. However, I'm not going to say Woods is incapable of writing a good Die Hard. After all the guys who wrote the first one hardly have spotless resumes.

As with all these films, I will remain cautious until cameras start rolling. Look at Ghostbusters III. Yes, we did eventually get a new Indy, Rock, Rambo and Die Hard but that was after years and years and years of um-ing and ah-ing. Don't hold your breath, basically.

[DamnCoffee]

Some news just in...

Bruce Willis reveals 'Die Hard' exit plan

Bruce Willis has announced that he intends to retire his Die Hard character John McClane in the near future.

The 55-year-old, who recently claimed that a fifth instalment of the action franchise will begin filming in 2011, detailed his planned exit from the series after sharing his fear of being replaced by a younger star.

He told FHM: "In the next few years they could easily find a replacement for me or call the character someone else. But for me, I want to do Die Hard 5, then one final Die Hard movie - Die Hard 6 - before finally hanging that white vest up for good.

"At the moment, I can run and I can fight on screen. But there will come a time when I no longer want to do that. That's when I'll step away from the Die Hard films."

Willis also revealed that he had been behind the iconic character's most well-known line, which came about after an argument with the film's producers.

"Take the first Die Hard - I was the one who came up with the line, 'Yippee ki-yay motherer!' The producers were trying to give me their take on how I should say a certain line at that point in the movie, and I disagreed.

"So they said, 'You do it'. So I did. Yippee ki-yay was some goofy thing that cowboys used to say in those movies, so I added the 'motherer' bit as I thought it was a nice, contrasting combination of the two images. And it worked. That expression's really stuck around, that's for sure."

[jrcjohnny99]

I'd be happy to see another DH, but I thought 4 was awful;
they need to get back to basics, forget about loads of CGI and focus on McClane;
If it's going to be a confined space, I think a prison would be great, or how about something set in a sports stadium;
Would be nice to see a modern take on "Black Sunday" or "Two Minute Warning"
(and yes, I'm aware of the ending of "Last Boy Scout")

[[dark]]

Looks like Die Hard 5 is gathering steam. Here's the shortlist of directors, courtesy of Deadline.

I'm reluctant to slag off any of the choices given Len "Underworld" Wiseman delivered the rollicking Die Hard 4.0.

[Dustin]

I'd like to see Die Hard 5 set in a hospital, with McClane waiting to get a pacemaker, while the bad guys try to kidnap some politician who's also due for a pacemaker. McClane could have numerous fights and shoot-outs while the heart catheter wire is still stuck inside him and some blood spurts out of the leaking lock in his jugular vein. Also the baddies could tug at his catheter wire and make his heart stumble a bit, giving the franchise some fresh meaning.

[Loomis]

Looks like Die Hard 5 is gathering steam. Here's the shortlist of directors, courtesy of Deadline.

Joe Cornish, Justin Lin, Nicolas Winding Refn and John Moore, eh?

Well, the only name on that list that excites me is Refn. I didn't much care for BRONSON (although it did keep me watching till the end), but his recent DRIVE is reputed to be amazing and I can't wait to check it out.

Cornish seems a stupefying suggestion.

The Russia setting sounds intriguing, but I wonder why they don't do the obvious thing and set DIE HARD 5 in Japan, bringing back the Nakatomi Corporation in some form and bringing the series full circle. I don't suggest that McClane fends off a terrorist assault on Nakatomi's HQ again, but I'd like the film be set in Tokyo and feature the company in some way - perhaps yakuza gangsters are trying to take it over, or bad apples in the boardroom are attempting to use its funds or assets in the service of a terrorist plot. Let's say that Holly McClane (our hero's ex-missus, who's been working for Nakatomi in Japan since DIE HARD 2) gets wind of this scheme and is murdered, whereupon McClane flies to Japan to investigate, exact revenge and stop the terrorists.

Cheesy, sure, but I think it could work. I'm picturing the first DIE HARD flick meeting Ridley Scott's BLACK RAIN or, even better, Sydney Pollack's forgotten masterpiece THE YAKUZA - a rather downbeat and poignant DIE HARD outing, soaked in travelogue and much more down-to-earth than DIE HARD 4.0. Or, to put it in recent sequel terms, the ROCKY BALBOA of the DIE HARD series.

[Captain Tightpants]

Based on my (admittedly limited) understanding, that's not how the yakuza really works. They're not like most mobsters; they consider themselves honourable, and semi-legitimate at that. In the aftermath of the Sendai earthquake and tsunami this year, the yakuza took in refugees and supplied aid. They're still criminals and they are, of course, violent, but they're almost a different class of criminal. The Nakatomi board of directors being corrupt could be a better idea.

The DIE HARD series has two common elements: a hero who is in the wrong place at the wrong time (and usually out of his jurisdiction), and an omnipotent enemy. A family member being held hostage may also be a common theme, though it was only used at the end of 4.0 and didn't get used at all in VENGEANCE. The villains also go after money, except in DIE HARDER and only at the end of 4.0 (which I think was the wrong direction for the film to go).

If McClane were to go east to Japan, then I don't think BLACK RAIN would go far enough. If you want Asian action films, then I think you need John Woo. Not necessarily as director, but I could see BLACK RAIN and A BETTER TOMORROW being spliced together.

[Loomis]

Based on my (admittedly limited) understanding, that's not how the yakuza really works. They're not like most mobsters; they consider themselves honourable, and semi-legitimate at that. In the aftermath of the Sendai earthquake and tsunami this year, the yakuza took in refugees and supplied aid. They're still criminals and they are, of course, violent, but they're almost a different class of criminal.

You may well be right (I know very little about the yakuza), but then I don't require documentary-style realism, especially in a DIE HARD film. I'd be fine with romanticised or "Hollywood" yakuza (who also appear in Japan's own films, of course) as long as the film were entertaining. Equally, though, the sort of yakuza you describe could also work in a movie - you make them sound a bit like Quantum with more of a social conscience.

If McClane were to go east to Japan, then I don't think BLACK RAIN would go far enough. If you want Asian action films, then I think you need John Woo. Not necessarily as director, but I could see BLACK RAIN and A BETTER TOMORROW being spliced together.

I think Hong Kong could also be a terrific location for a DIE HARD outing.

[Captain Tightpants]

You may well be right (I know very little about the yakuza), but then I don't require documentary-style realism, especially in a DIE HARD film. I'd be fine with romanticised or "Hollywood" yakuza (who also appear in Japan's own films, of course) as long as the film were entertaining. Equally, though, the sort of yakuza you describe could also work in a movie - you make them sound a bit like Quantum with more of a social conscience.

A yakuza-Nakatomi cross-over could work. I was reading a story a while ago about how there was concern that organised crime syndicates in Asia had hit upon the idea of using emissions trading schemes to launder money. I could see a DIE HARD film where the Nakatomi Corporation has become involved in black market emissions trading, running a kind of extortion racket by buying into companies, lowering their emissions trade-offs, then taking the benefits from the government for themselves and selling off the shell of the company once they've been bled dry. Kind of like corporate rading with an environmental twist. The yakuza decide to do something about it, taking control of Nakatomi HQ on behalf of the common man who has been shafted by the greedy CEO.

I think Hong Kong could also be a terrific location for a DIE HARD outing.

I have this image in my head of a young John McClane on top of a skyscraper in the middle of the night with heavy rain hammering down, and the whole thing lit by the glow of the city. Almost BLADE RUNNER-ish.

[SecretAgentFan]

I agree - it would have been nice to have the last film set in Japan. But with this year´s events most people probably would rather avoid going to film there (THE WOLVERINE anyone?)

Also, if it is already set in Russia...

[[dark]]

Japan would be a great place to set a Die Hard flick. Willis recently mentioned that he hopes to call it quits with Die Hard 6, so you never know.

Russia's an interesting (and unexpected) choice, though. Certainly a bolder move than just dropping him into another Anglo metropolis.

But please, let's not make this one PG-13! You're basically neutering John McClane by taking away his catchphrase.

[DR76]

I wouldn't go see a John McClane/Jack Bauer "crossover". Not by a long shot. The two characters should remain separate as far as I'm concerned. And the sardonic McClane does not strike me as the type of character that could get along with the humorless and vengeance-happy Bauer.

[Righty007]

[Captain Tightpants]

I wouldn't go see a John McClane/Jack Bauer "crossover". Not by a long shot. The two characters should remain separate as far as I'm concerned. And the sardonic McClane does not strike me as the type of character that could get along with the humorless and vengeance-happy Bauer.

The idea was dropped a year ago.