Well, the long search is over for a director to take on “Die Hard 5” and the result is pretty anti-climatic. While Noam Murro was initially going to direct, he bailed to go do “300: Battle of Artemisia” instead. And while a shortlist developed of interesting but unlikely names like Joe Cornish, Justin Lin and Nicolas Winding Refn, Bruce Willis has settled on “Max Payne” director John Moore to guide the fifth installment of the tired franchise.
In a lot of ways, the choice makes sense. None of the far-more-established names above would deign to come in for number five on an aging franchise, and Moore, who hasn’t done anything since ‘Payne’ and whose CV is peppered with middling accomplishments like “The Omen,” “Flight of the Phoenix” and “Behind Enemy Lines,” arrives with action experience and likely a very affordable rate. With three years since his last effort, he’ll roll over pretty easily to whatever demands Willis or the studio wants in regards to the production of the film. It’s win-win for everybody except the audience. Deadline says folks like Gary Fleder (“Runaway Jury“), Paul McGuigan (“Lucky Number Slevin“) and Mikael Hafstrom were also being considered, but Moore won the demanding Willis over with promises of practical effects versus CGI nonsense.
Written by Skip Woods (”X-Men Origins: Wolverine”), “Die Hard 5” will apparently involve McClane battling local forces in Russia with his two sons in what we’re guessing will be a movie that will hope to keep the franchise alive with two younger names. It’s a pretty awful idea, but after “Die Hard 4.0XPVirusInTheCloud” or whatever that was, thing’s can’t get much worse, can they? At the very least, they should listen to Michael Scott‘s keen observations about the franchise thus far. But anyway, this isn’t the only old-people action movie Willis is getting off the ground.
Last year’s “Red,” in which its elderly cast powered it to just under $200 million worldwide, is getting its inevitable sequel. But with director Robert Schwentke busy with “R.I.P.D.,” a search for a helmer has started. The first name being mentioned is Breck Eisner, the man responsible for “The Crazies” and “Sahara.” For fuck’s sake guys, we can do better than that, can’t we? It’s still early in the game for that one so expect a fistful of more names to surface before Willis eventually decides. No word yet on the script for this or when production is being geared up to shoot, but Willis is busy enough for the time being. He’s expected to go to yet another senior action movie, taking a role in “The Expendables 2,” which should start shooting any day now. 