No more heroes, "Die Hard 6: McClane" filming plan stopped

Although pages for the Die Hard reboot/prequel McClane can still be found on various movie websites, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura confirmed that the film has been aborted.

At the launch of G.I. Joe: Snake Eyes, Di Bonaventura told the media: "Yes, the movie will not be made. What's interesting is that we actually found such a way to continue this series. It was not originally "Die Hard", but it ended up being "Die Hard."

The Die Hard film series is good at recycling. After the success of the first film in 1988, 20th Century Fox executives bought the rights to Walter Wager's novel 58 Minutes and hired Die Hard screenwriter Stephen E. De Sousa to put McClane into the plot, and Die Hard 2 was born. Die Hard was originally an original script that Warner wanted to put into the Lethal Weapon series. After the adaptation failed, the script was sold to 20th Century Fox, which became Die Hard.

"McClan" was originally planned to take a similar approach. Di Bonaventura said that this film, which was announced in 2015, will allow Len Wiseman and Bruce Willis to work together, hoping to bring a new look to the series.

"The most interesting thing about our idea is that we want to show the audience a young John McClane and use Bruce. So there are two versions of the protagonist in the film, a bit like "The Godfather Part II."

Although many scripts have been considered for Die Hard 6 over the years, this prequel script with a parallel storyline still attracted a lot of attention... and then Disney acquired Fox in 2019.

“I don’t know what they have planned,” Di Bonaventura said of the work and the character. Under Disney, the newly formed 20th Century Studios is just beginning to tap into Fox’s product library. John McClane can only lie dormant for now, but in an era of streaming media and thirst for blockbuster IP, these classics will always have a chance to see the light of day.