He’s been trapped in buildings and at airports and in the company of Justin Long, so at this point there isn’t much officer John McClane cannot withstand. Including a fifth installment of the “Die Hard” franchise. Hey, isn’t McClane too old for this s—t? What’s that? That’s another 80’s action franchise? Ah. Sorry about that. The Risky Business blog says Fox is on the verge of hiring a screenwriter for the fifth flick:
“Hitman” screenwriter Skip Woods is in negotiations with Fox to take a crack at a new “Die Hard” script…
There’s no word yet on the new project’s story line, but former Fox exec Alex Young (“Unstoppable”) is producing.
The CAA-repped Woods has already co-written several tentpole projects for Fox, including “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and the forthcoming TV adaptation “The A-Team.” He also wrote the original screenplay for “Swordfish.”
Before you go rolling your eyes at this development, let me give you a little history lesson. I’m of the opinion that the first two “Die Hard” movies are excellent, and the second two are crap. There’s a reason Die Hards 3 and 4 were terrible, and that is they were never intended to be “Die Hard” movies to begin with. “Die Hard With A Vengeance” was made into a “Die Hard” movie from a script called “Simon Says,” which itself was almost made into a “Lethal Weapon” sequel before being twisted and shaped into a John McClane vehicle. “Live Free Or Die Hard” was also rejiggered from an original spec script called “WW3.com”.
So neither the third nor the fourth “Die Hard” movies were initially drawn up as “Die Hard” movies. And it shows. Oh, does it show. Bruce Willis isn’t boxed in during either film, as he was in the first two. And critics all over the place howled about McClane’s apparent indestructibility in the fourth film, which stripped away the character’s everyman appeal. John McClane works as a character when he is terrified and suffering. He was neither in the last movie.
So this “Die Hard” will be the first in the franchise to be conceived as a “Die Hard” movie since the second movie. Which means, ooh la la, this Skip Woods fellow has a chance to write an original John McClane story from scratch, rather than shoehorning a few wisecracks into someone else’s old script and calling it a day. Will that make a difference? Hopefully. If not… NOW I HAVE A MACHINE GUN. HO HO HO.
