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Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
The Story Behind How A Cancelled Bruce Willis Rom-Com Forced Him To Make Two Of His Career's Biggest Hits
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. As a professional movie fan, excitement surrounding a roster like the 2025 movie schedule means anticipating the arrival of both projects and talent heading to the big screen. It's been that way for a while, and I have to admit that as a kid, looking forward to a new Bruce Willis movie was pretty sweet, considering movies like The Fifth Element and The Jackal were square in young Mike's wheelhouse. But there's a movie that never got its chance in the sun, and it's all because of a perfect storm of imperfect creative differences forcing it to be cancelled. Yet through a story that saw the Die Hard legend basically being forced into a deal that was less than ideal, the result saw two classics we still consider as some of the best Bruce Willis movies becoming a living, breathing reality. The only reason I know of Broadway Brawler's existence is because of Channel Serfer's 'The Death of Cinergi Pictures' video. A deep dive into how the production label that partnered with Disney on films such as Judge Dredd, Deep Rising, and other more mature fare collapsed, this tale is one of the cornerstones of how that demise came to be. Which is weird, because when trying to imagine what this Bruce Willis movie would have looked like, I could kind of see it working. Our basic setup is recounted on Broadway Brawler's Wikipedia page in some pretty broad strokes. All we really know is that hockey player Eddie Kapinsky (Willis) is retired and trying to start a romance with a character played by Maura Tierney. Admit it: this concept harkens back to Willis' days on Moonlighting, allowing the action star to dabble once again in the rom-com format that helped make him. Alas, on February 28th, 1997, Broadway Brawler came to a halt after just 20 days of shooting. Per a 1997 report from Variety, the collapse of Broadway Brawler came after, according to director Lee Grant, Bruce Willis simply didn't show up for work on the Wilmington, Delaware set. What's more, Grant was apparently fired on that same day, along with several other crew members on the project. Lee Grant's husband, and Broadway Brawler producer Joe Feury, summed up the situation in this passage from a letter to the town of Wilmington: (via Delaware Online) The way it ended was a nightmare. After 20 days of shooting, we knew that we were making a wonderful film, but Bruce wasn't happy. So, the production was closed down. The wreckage that was left after two years of our work is so shocking that as I write to you, the full impact of it still hasn't hit. Allegedly, there were several Broadway Brawler crew members that the Die Hard star did not get along with; Lee Grant and her husband being two of the most notable. By the time the picture had shut down, 'more than half' of the $28 million budget (worth roughly $53 million in 2025) was spent, according to the Variety piece cited above. Though that wasn't until after Mr. Willis supposedly tapped an old friend from his Moonlighting days to try and right the ship. After the alleged troubles between Bruce Willis and his Broadway Brawler crew, the 12 Monkeys actor had what he thought was an ace up his sleeve. Recounted in The Los Angeles Times' 1997 story 'The Fight Over 'Broadway Brawler',' Willis had tapped director Dennis Dugan to step in and try to get things back on track. Personal connection aside, that's a choice that I think anyone would stand by; given that Dugan's big hit for 1996, the Adam Sandler classic Happy Gilmore, swam in very similar circles. However, this hopeful replacement saw only one day of action on set, which officially sealed Broadway Brawler's fate as lost media gold. Cinergi Pictures' decline was all but certain at this point, and Disney was looking to recoup its losses, which almost came through a lawsuit against Bruce Willis himself. In the aftermath of cancelling Broadway Brawler, the final matter that needed to be addressed was how Disney would be made whole for the money they'd spent. Again, 'more than half' of the aborted romantic comedy's budget was blown, and that's pretty huge for something that was never completed. As you'd imagine, this is yet another one of those situations where it's good to have friends, and as recalled by Deadline in a 2010 report about a later Bruce Willis deal, that pal would come in the form of former Fox chairman Joe Roth. That man just so happened to be the chairman of Walt Disney Studios during Broadway Bomber's embattled tenure, which positioned him to make this infamous deal: Facing a lawsuit and on the hook for the $17.5 million cost to scrap the movie, Willis was persuaded by Roth to make a three-picture deal, the smartest decision the actor made outside of saying yes to Die Hard. Willis replaced Sean Connery as the star of Armageddon, getting around $3 million upfront (the rest of his usual payday offset the Broadway Brawler costs). OK, while I'm definitely going to put a pin in the story of how Sean Connery was being pitched for Armageddon, that deal sounds like a definite downgrade. But at the same time, at least we weren't talking about a classic Marvel Cinematic Universe-style contract. Three movies would be nothing in the grand scheme of things, and they definitely beat Mr. Willis' other choice of going to court. The reporting above noted that it was a pretty smart move, which would be proven over the next two summers at the box office. When you hear a star like Bruce Willis has been backed into a corner on 'contractual obligations,' the movies that result are almost always assumed to be horrific. But surprisingly, two of the New Jersey-native's biggest successes came out of this twist of fate. You see, if Broadway Brawler hadn't failed, then Mr. Willis may have never made Armageddon, The Sixth Sense, and Disney's The Kid. Without a question, the first two titles are included on anyone's list of favorites from the Willis filmography, and rightfully so. Especially since Ben Affleck's infamous Criterion commentary for Michael Bay's 1998 blockbuster is just as beloved as the film itself. However, as someone who has seen all three, I'd definitely encourage you to check out The Kid, as the light-hearted comedy scratches a similar itch to the one I mentioned when pondering Broadway Brawler's big 'what if.' As curious as I am about what this cancelled rom-com would have looked like, I don't think we're ever going to see that footage for ourselves. Which means that the only traces of this unfinished Bruce Willis movie remain solely on Broadway Brawler's IMDb page, through alleged set images and a mock-up of an Eddie Kapinsky trading card. There's still a little hope, though, at least if director Lee Grant's remarks to Variety in 1997 still hold true, closing the book on her own involvement with the project, Grant discussed the results of those 20 days of filming by stating, 'I'd love to edit it together.' In a post-Coyote vs. Acme world, stranger prospects could be proposed. Even outside of the losses and disagreements that came out of Broadway Brawler's aftermath, it's hard to argue against this being a best-case solution to a worst-case scenario. Sadly, Bruce Willis' 2022 retirement, due to his diagnosis with frontotemporal dementia, means that the action-comedy icon will never work again. And while there are a lot of negatives in this story, perhaps the greatest is that we'll always be missing out without that trademark Willis charm flashing on our screens.
San Francisco Chronicle
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Death becomes him: ‘The Shrouds' director David Cronenberg dips into the macabre
David Cronenberg, a master of the body horror movie genre, is genuinely mystified at the sudden cultural conflict between his native Canada and the United States, two countries he loves with a passion. The brouhaha was sparked recently by President Donald Trump, who has called for the U.S. to annex Canada as its 51st state and has instigated a trade war through actual or threatened tariffs. Cronenberg, whose dad was from Baltimore and therefore makes him 'half-American,' wasn't shy when talking to the Chronicle about the current adminstration during a recent visit to San Francisco to promote his new film ' The Shrouds.' He called Trump and his associates, including special adviser Elon Musk, 'strange' — and that's something coming from a director responsible for some of the weirdest movies of the past half-century. But he has a message for those social justice warriors who are so angry at Musk, the CEO of Tesla, that they are selling the electric cars they bought from the company or are protesting at its dealerships: You can pry the steering wheel of his beloved Tesla out of his cold dead hands. 'I'm not selling. I do have a personal relationship with the car,' said Cronenberg, who is on his third Tesla and directed 'Crash' (1996), about people erotically attracted to car wrecks and sex in cars. 'It could be illegal in certain states. My car and I, we are a couple, and Elon has nothing to do with it.' Whether entertaining a rapturous, late-night crowd after recent a sold-out screening of his latest film at the Roxie Theater or sitting for an interview with the Chronicle the next morning at the Hotel Drisco in Pacific Heights, Cronenberg is unexpectedly witty, given the tone of his films. But make no mistake, the 82-year-old director and sometimes actor (a regular on 'Star Trek: Discovery') has been thinking a lot about death. His wife of about four decades, editor Carolyn Zeifman, died in 2017 and he's still grieving, which has led to his current film. As part of the mourning process, he starred in a 2021 short film, co-directed by himself and his daughter Caitlin, called 'The Death of David Cronenberg,' in which he faces his own mortality. Also, a spiritual brother — the filmmaker he calls 'the other David' — David Lynch, died in January at 78, which Cronenberg called 'a shock.' The two existential directors both came up in the 1970s and shared a Hollywood impresario who supported their distinctive visions in comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks, who produced Lynch's ' The Elephant Man ' (1980) and Cronenberg's ' The Fly ' (1986) without taking official credit. 'Every day you look at the newspaper or go online and there's somebody your age who just died,' Cronenberg observed. 'The Shrouds,' which opens Friday, April 25, follows Karsh (Vincent Cassel, looking very Cronenbergesque with his tall angular figure and shock of gray hair swept back), a tech entrepreneur and widower who has developed GraveTech, which allows family members to observe their deceased loved ones' bodies as they decompose. Karsh uses the innovation to watch his wife's body, with which he was obsessed. Played by Diane Kruger, she comes to him in his dreams. Kruger also plays his wife's sister, still among the living, and Karsh's AI bot and confidant, Hunny, who follows him everywhere there are screens, including in Karsh's Tesla. For Cronenberg, an atheist who is a former car and motorcycle racer who doesn't drink, smoke or do drugs and who bicycles, walks and has lifted weights since he was 16, the human body is a temple. But it also is isolating and lonely. 'The Shrouds' director spoke to the Chronicle about how his films often centers around characters who transcend their bodies using technology, which creates chaos but also the hope for connection. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Q: You were famously in the mix to direct ' Return of the Jedi ' (1983), the last film of the first 'Star Wars' trilogy. How close did you come? A: I got a phone call from somebody from George Lucas ' company and they said, 'George is interested in having you as director of 'Revenge of the Jedi.'' That's what it was called at the time, until they realized that the Jedi don't take revenge, so they had to change it. I said, 'Well, I don't usually do other people's material.' They hung up on me because they didn't expect that kind of reaction. Q: Yet the year 'Jedi' came out, so did 'The Dead Zone,' starring Christopher Walken and Martin Sheen, your adaptation of another person's work, Stephen King's novel. A: Absolutely. The deal there was I could be very involved in the rewriting of the screenplay. There were five screenplays and one of them was by Stephen, and I had carte blanche up to a point to fashion it in my own way. I don't know if I would have had that with the 'Star Wars' thing. Q: You directed and are credited as co-writer of 'The Fly,' the remake of the 1950s science fiction classic starring Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, which contains one of the great catch phrases of the 1980s that is still quoted today: 'Be afraid. Be very afraid.' Who actually wrote that line? A: It was Mel Brooks. I had written a scene where the Geena Davis character says, 'Don't be afraid,' and Mel said to me, 'No, she should be saying, 'Be afraid. Be very afraid,'' and I said, 'Yeah, you're right, Mel.' I put it in the script, exactly as he said it. Mel is a very literate, intelligent guy, and I really loved working with him. Q: In your latest film'The Shrouds,' you open with Karsh on a first date a few years after his wife's death. Have you been dating? A: I've had a couple of serious relationships since my wife died, and I'm single right now, so if any of your readers are interested, I am available. (Laughs) But they were good despite the fact that they didn't last long, because it let me know that I could have a relationship. I learned there is life after grief. Q: Like all of your films, 'The Shrouds' could be classified as body horror. Why are you obsessed with the human body in your work? A: I find (the body horror label) diminishes my intentions. It's a marketing question: How do we sell this movie? Without maybe being conscious of it, all filmmakers are obsessed with the human body. The way (humans) perceive the world is different than the way your dog perceives the world or the way that spider over there perceives the world. Each one has its own reality and it's dependent on its body, its nervous system, the expanse of its life or the restrictions of its life. As humans, we've never accepted our bodies as given. We tattoo them, we change them, we amputate them, we alter them for aesthetic reasons, for religious reasons, for political reasons, cultural reasons. Q: Technology is also front and center in your films. Karsh's GraveTech and his AI bot; you can go back to your 'Videodrome' (1983, starring James Woods and Deborah Harry) which predicted our addiction to screens. Is the future scary or welcoming to you? A: Technology is innately human, and I'm very comfortable with it. And of course, cinema is a very technological creative medium compared with painting or writing, so it's a natural thing for me. I can make it very clear: Behind my ears is a set of new hearing aids that incorporate an artificial intelligence chip that's made by Phonak, a Swiss company. I'm looking at you through plastic lenses in my eyes because I've had cataract surgery. Without those, my career would have ended five or six movies ago. So that, to me, is innately what technology is best at, and it is part of being human. Q: What about AI? A: I'm not more concerned with AI than I am about nuclear power, frankly. It's something that we continuously deal with. Being the technological animals that we are, we are constantly coming up with possible planet destroying technology, one way or another. So in each case, it's got the power to be amazingly wonderful and beautiful, and it always has the power to be hideously destructive. AI is just one more version of that. An unusual one, but one that's been anticipated in science fiction for a long time. Q: What will happen to your body after you die? A: There's a Walk of Fame in Toronto that's sort of like Hollywood's. I do have a plaque in the sidewalk, and at one point I thought that it would be great if I were buried under that, and that a plexiglass part of the pavement was put in so that people walking over could look down into the grave and see me there, decomposing.
