Cotton Budd
While remakes of “House Party” and “Haunted Mansion” are deemed safe risks – heh – Disney has seemingly gone icy on pursuing any more “Die Hard” films.
Len Wiseman’s long-in-development “McClane”, a film that would’ve explored John McClane’s younger years – with scenes of Bruce Willis reprising John senior throughout, as he re-tells the story – is dead at the house of mouse.
“Yeah, no, it’s not happening,” producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told Polygon. “But what was really interesting was we actually came up with an idea to do it. It was a project that wasn’t Die Hard that then, eventually, shifted over to Die Hard.”
He adds: “What was interesting about our idea was it allowed you the ability to meet the young John McClane and use Bruce. So it was really interesting in that way. So you sort of got to see both versions of him. A bit [like The Godfather Part 2].”
This would’ve been the first in the “Die Hard” film series since the stinktastic “A Good Day to Die Hard” – which tanked at the Box Office and sullied the good franchise’s name.
Now, just because Disney has abandoned the “Die Hard” sequel/prequel hybrid doesn’t mean they haven’t got plans for the brand. It’s too lucrative to just sit. Remember what happened with “Alien”? Disney weren’t so hot on doing any “Alien” films at the moment, so instead they pushed the property to their TV division where Noah Hawley is now developing an “Alien” TV series for FX. Don’t be surprised if has the same idea for “Die Hard”… and some of its other properties that currently lay stagnant.
