Latest news with #JohnMcClane
New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Why Frank Sinatra was offered Bruce Willis' part in ‘Die Hard'
Fans almost saw Frank Sinatra do it, his way. Although fans know Bruce Willis for playing the iconic role of John McClane in the 1988 action/thriller 'Die Hard,' it turns out that 20th Century Studios was contractually obligated to offer a certain A-list singer the role first. 'Die Hard' was adapted from the 1979 novel 'Nothing Lasts Forever,' written by former detective Roderick Thorp, and was a sequel to his first book, 'The Detective.' Advertisement 6 Bruce Willis in the 1988 action/thriller 'Die Hard.' ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection 6 Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis in 'Die Hard with a Vengeance.' ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection The first novel was already made into a film, the 1968 thriller/crime by the same name which starred Sinatra and Lee Remick. Advertisement Since the movie studio had the rights to the original book and its sequel before they were written for the big screen, they had to ask Sinatra first. He was 70 at the time and declined the part. 'Die Hard' also starred Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, and William Atherton. Prior to landing the part of John McClane, Willis, 70, was only known for starring in the comedy series, 'Moonlighting,' opposite Cybill Shepherd. 6 Bruce Willis in the film 'Die Hard with a Vengeance.' ©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection Advertisement The action star went on to reprise his role in all five 'Die Hard Films,' including: 'Die Hard 2' (1990), 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' (1995), 'Live Free or Die Hard' (2007), and the final installment, 'A Good Day to Die Hard' in 2013. In March, in honor of Willis' 70th birthday, his 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' costar Samuel L. Jackson revealed the advice he received from him on set. 'He told me, 'Hopefully you'll be able to find a character that, when you make bad movies and they don't make any money, you can always go back to this character everybody loves,'' Jackson, 76, told Vanity Fair at the time. 'He said, 'Arnold's got 'Terminator.' Sylvester's got 'Rocky, Rambo.' I've got John McClane.' I'm like, 'Oh, okay.' And it didn't occur to me until I got that Nick Fury role—and I had a nine-picture deal to be Nick Fury—that, Oh, I'm doing what Bruce said. I've got this character now.' 6 Frank Sinatra and his wife Ava Gardner in 1956. Getty Images Advertisement During the Vanity Fair sit-down, Bedelia, 77, who played McClane's ex-wife Holly Gennero in the first two 'Die Hard' movies, also took a moment to reflect on the cult classic. 'I think that he's basically underrated because he was a big box-office star. So that immediately works against you,' she explained. 'I think, in his mind, he always wanted to be an actor and to do interesting work. That's why becoming famous for such a huge, boffo movie was not expected from him.' 'But once he was there, it was kind of like, you know, 'I'm an actor,'' Bedelia continued. 'And I don't think he saw, in terms of the work, a lot of difference between them. One was not more important than the other, because he was getting to work with interesting directors, with interesting scripts.' 6 Frank Sinatra performing. Shutterstock 6 Frank Sinatra takes a break during a recording session. Getty Images Even Willis, who retired from acting in 2022, following his diagnosis of aphasia and then frontotemporal dementia in 2023, didn't know how big him or his 'Die Hard' character would be. 'I never expected to become this famous,' he said in 1990. 'I wanted to be successful as an actor; I never equated that [with being] famous and having your life story in every newspaper in the country. I just never thought that far ahead. And I don't know who does.'
Yahoo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Die Hard With A Vengeance Is One Of My Favorite Action Movies, And I Guess I Have Steven Seagal To Thank?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. When it comes to the Die Hard franchise and the best '90s movies in general, Die Hard with a Vengeance will always be at the top of my list. Admittedly, this was the first John McClane movie I saw (it came on HBO when I was like seven years old), and so I've always had a soft spot for Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson teaming up to save the 'Big Apple.' The frenzied New York City setting, the cat-and-mouse game, the big twists, the ties to the franchise's early days. All of it is just perfect. While I've known for years that this didn't start out as a Die Hard movie, I only recently learned that we saw this iconic version of it because of a classic Steven Seagal action flick. So, I guess I have the controversial actor-turned-musician-turned-sheriff to thank for it all. Here's why… The 'Die Hard on a [insert location]' trend took off like wildfire soon after Bruce Willis first played John McClane back in the 1988 franchise starter, but the series almost tried that angle out itself in the early 1990s. Following the release of Die Hard 2: Die Harder, 20th Century Fox made plans for another sequel, which wasn't going to take place in New York City, but instead on a boat. Yes, we were close to having Die Hard on a Boat. Back in late 1992, the Los Angeles Times reported that the threequel's original idea would have seen the grumpy, hungover, yet dependable detective attempt to save a yuppie cruise ship from a band of terrorists. In that report, it was also pointed out that this version was based on a spec script titled Troubleshooter, but more on that later. So, what ended up causing the studio to back off and pivot to what would become the 1995 blockbuster? Though a script was adapted and fine-tuned for Die Hard 3, and it looked like things were going to pick up steam, the project was abandoned at some point in 1992 because of a little movie called Under Siege, starring none other than Steven Seagal. In the same Los Angeles Times article mentioned above, the studio and film's producers decided that the similarly plotted movies – Under Siege centers on a U.S. Navy ship hijacked by terrorists – would have come out too close to one another and didn't want it to look like Willis was following in Seagal's footsteps. This also followed a trend of other movies that took a page out of Die Hard's book (Passenger 57 and Cliffhanger also came out in the months following Under Siege's success). I totally see why Willis, Fox, and the Die Hard 3 producers wanted to take a different approach to the franchise after the success of Under Siege, as well as the trend of similarly-plotted action movies at the time. However, I'm not going to lie and say I wouldn't want to hear John McClane say his famous line while swinging from a cable connected to a ship's smokestack or while taking out a terrorist by swinging on an anchor or something. John Milius, the man who wrote classics like Jeremiah Johnson, Apocalypse Now, and Magnum Force before directing quintessential '80s movies like Red Dawn and Conan the Barbarian, was tasked with working on Die Hard 3 after the original plans sank. I don't know about you, but the idea of Milius writing a John McClane story seems like a match made in action movie heaven, and it almost happened. According to the same Los Angeles Times article, Milius, who told the paper, 'We're off the boat,' was approached to make a non-nautical Die Hard movie at some point in late 1992 with the idea that it would shoot in mid-1993 and come out during the 1994 summer blockbuster season. There were some massive movies in '94, and Die Hard 3 would have been right in the middle of it all. Imagine two Bruce Willis movies, two all-time great action flicks, and more in the same summer. Bonkers! At some point, I can't really figure out when, Fox scrapped the Milius idea (I really want to know what this would have been about) and decided to just take an unproduced script that it owned, retool it, and make it into Vengeance. I've been aware that the movie started out as a thriller called Simon Says (that aspect remained in the finished product), I didn't know that it was originally supposed to be a Brandon Lee movie before the actor's tragic death on the set of The Crow. According to Comic Book Resource, Simon Says was pitched after the success of 1992's Rapid Fire, with Lee taking on the role of NYPD officer Alex Bradshaw and the character that eventually became Samuel L. Jackson's Zeus Carver being a female instead. But those plans were scrapped when Lee died in a freak on-set accident in 1993, and the script was put back in the pile before being turned into Die Hard with a Vengeance. Perhaps the craziest thing, however, I learned throughout all of this is that not only do I have Seagal to thank for Die Hard with a Vengeance, I also have him to thank for this absolutely insane Willem Dafoe death scene. Digging around, I discovered that the unused Die Hard 3 script from the early 1990s was later retooled and turned into Speed 2: Cruise Control. Though the story ended up being used for a random sequel to 1994's Speed (without Keanu Reeves) that is considered garbage by most, it still got to see the light of day. When speaking with Movieline back in 2001, John McTiernan, who directed the original Willis actioner and Vengeance, explained that most of the material that was developed for the aborted third installment was turned into Speed 2, including the iconic scene where the ship washes ashore, causing all kinds of destruction. See, it wasn't all lost. All in all, Die Hard with a Vengeance is one of my favorite action movies, my most-watched installment in the Bruce Willis action series, and a game-changing blockbuster. Maybe it's for the best that Steven Seagal had to come in and make a mess of things.
Telegraph
21-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Heathrow crisis ‘is same as plot of Die Hard 2'
The Heathrow airport shutdown has similarities to the plot of Die Hard 2, according to social media users. The film, starring Bruce Willis as John McClane, revolves around a terrorist attack at Washington Dulles International airport. Col William Stuart, who is a former US Special Forces colonel, and his men cut all communications with incoming planes and disable all runway lights in an attempt to rescue a drug lord from being extradited to the United States. The move leaves planes circling the airport and running low on fuel, with Col Stuart's men deliberately forcing a British jet to crash land, killing everyone on board. However, following the substation fire near Heathrow, flights were diverted to airports across Europe rather than left circling the airport. At least 1,351 flights going to and from the airport are set to be affected by the closure, with up to 291,000 passengers thought to be affected. Counter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into the cause of the fire, with specialist detectives on site at the North Hyde electrical substation in Hayes, west London. The officers – also known as SO15 – will play a key role in trying to establish whether or not any hostile agents were involved in triggering the blaze. In Die Hard 2, McClane is forced to enlist the help of an airport cleaner to fight back against the terrorists and prevent a flight with his wife on board from crashing. One user on X said: 'Anybody else see the parallels between one sub station taking out Heathrow airport and the storyline in Die Hard 2 where one power cable took out the electricity to a whole airport? Where is John McClane today when you need him?' Another commented: 'No remote backup generators… What we can conclude is that no-one from Heathrow has ever seen Die Hard 2...' A third added: 'Sat here thinking did the infrastructure team at Heathrow not learn from Die Hard 2?!' In the film, McClane eventually defeats the terrorists and is reunited with his wife Holly after her plane lands safely on the runway guided by flames from McClane's previous battle. The disruption at Heathrow on Friday was also likened to the disruption caused to air traffic in the aftermath of the Sept 11 terror attacks. In a post on X this morning, Sir Keir Starmer said he was 'receiving regular updates' on the situation as he thanked emergency services. A Heathrow airport spokesman said the site will be 'safely able to begin some flights later [on Friday]'.
Washington Post
20-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Washington Post
Action movie ‘Cleaner' is ‘Die Hard' with a squeegee
'Cleaner' is a 'Die Hard' knockoff with just enough fresh elements to make it watchable on a slow streaming night. Chief among those elements are Daisy Ridley in the classic John McClane role — nice to see high-rise terrorists outfoxed by an average Jane for a change — and some effective head games as to where the audience should place its sympathies. It's meat-and-potatoes stuff (well, we're in London, so bangers and mash), but you could do worse and probably have.
