Live Free or Die Hard
Another month and another relic is dragged kicking and screaming from the last century to this. Today Fox have announced that which has been rumour for months - John McClane is coming back to the cinema in the fourth Die Hard film. Willis reprises his role as the unlucky cop, apparently this time fighting cyber-terrorists. Forgive me if I don’t sound too excited.
Here’s the press release from Fox…
Twentieth Century Fox have announced the return of John McClane in a new installment of their Die Hard action franchise: LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD. Bruce Willis reprises his signature role as the New York City cop who always finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time with the film set to be released June 29, 2007 – the eve of the US Independence Day holiday weekend – a particularly appropriate date because the story itself takes place over the Fourth of July.
Len Wiseman, the director of the Underworld franchise (Underworld, Underworld:Evolution) is directing from a screenplay by Mark Bomback. Renowned for their non-stop action the fourth in the Die Hard series will offer the biggest, most realistic set pieces in the franchise’s illustrious history. In the new picture, an attack on the vulnerable United States computer infrastructure begins to shut down the entire nation. The mysterious figure behind the shattering scheme has figured out every digital angle – but he never figured on an old-fashioned, “analog” fly-in-the-ointment: John McClane.
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD begins production in September.
The Die Hard films are classics of action cinema, but they’re from a different time. Then, our action heros were hard men, now they’re religious nutcases like Tom Cruise. Hollywood is desparately lacking successors to Willis, Stallone and Schwarzenneger so instead they’re now relying on bringing back these aging action stars for ‘one last adventure’.
Why bother?