![]() Another elephant in the room is that Troubleshooter had already been rejected, specifically by Willis, for being too similar to Under Siege. Would Die Hard 3: Cruise Control have suffered the same ignominy? A major complaint of Speed 2 was the non-return of Keanu Reaves, star of 1994’s Speed, so perhaps as long as Die Hard 3 has Bruce Willis, it would have an advantage over Speed 2. It was repurposed to becomes 1997’s Speed 2: Cruise Control, a film that received largely negative reviews, only barely turned a profit from its $160 million budget, and was nominated for eight Golden Raspberry Awards, the parody award show honouring the worst of Hollywood cinema. ![]() The one we know for sure at one point was intended to become the third Die Hard film, Troubleshooter, was eventually filmed. There are numerous action movie scripts that floated around Hollywood and became sequels to existing films. The purchase of the script by Warner Brothers was never completed, and Lethal Weapon 4 spent several more years in its own troubled development before being released in 1998. Much like the other one that the original Die Hard was originally meant to be a sequel to 1985’s Commando starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. As much as there is hope that in some universe somewhere there exists footage of Glover and Gibson bickering over how to get 4 gallons of water using only 3- and 5-gallon jugs, the longstanding legend that Lethal Weapon 4 became Die Hard with a Vengeance is just that: a legend. They presumably would have replaced the NYPD cop and activist leads with series stars Danny Glover and Mel Gibson as Roger Murtaugh and Martin Riggs. Their intentions? To turn it into the fourth film in the Lethal Weapon series. The script was well-regarded within Hollywood, and word reached Warner Brothers who made overtures to Fox to purchase the script. Simon Says went back to a list of available scripts owned by Fox, but before it joins Die Hard history, it has a brief detour to another 1980s originating action series. He was already in the midst of filming his next headlining performance while Fox was preparing multiple scripts for him, when tragedy struck. That Rapid Fire was not well-received aside from Lee’s performance speaks to the potential the actor had at becoming a major star. Lee was meant to play Alex Bradshaw of the NYPD, who becomes embroiled in a revenge plot across the city accompanied by Angela Bassett as a community activist. The younger Lee had a star-making turn in 1992’s Rapid Fire, and Fox had begun planning not only sequels to that film, but also other starring vehicles. Fox purchased the film with the intention of turning it into a vehicle for up-and-coming star Brandon Lee, son of the legendary Bruce Lee. Simon Says had been written on spec, that is non-commissioned and unsolicited, with the hope of having it optioned and purchased by a producer or company. ![]() Hensleigh was a newcomer to the industry, with most of his credits being episodes of the television series The Young Indiana Jones. A controversial choice when there was still seen to be a major distinction between film and television actors, but perhaps more than any other, the right choice that made Die Hard the enduring success it became on release.Įlsewhere in early 1990s Hollywood, screenwriter Jonathan Hensleigh had written a script under the title Simon Says. The septuagenarian crooner declined, and television star Bruce Willis landed the lead, renamed to John McClane, after muscle-bound 80s action stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone amongst many others passed. In fact, when Fox finally began work on adapting the more high-concept Nothing Lasts Forever in 1987, they were obliged to offer the lead role to the original Joe Leland: Frank Sinatra. ![]() 20th Century Fox had adapted The Detective with Sinatra and had purchased the rights to the novel’s sequel more than a decade before it was written. ![]() That novel was itself a sequel to Thorp’s 1966 novel The Detective, which was filmed in 1968 under the same name featuring Frank Sinatra as its main character: NYPD detective Joe Leland. The original 1988 holiday classic began life as Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever. It is a quirk of the Die Hard series that, of the five films released, only one of them began production life as a Die Hard film. ![]()
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