The good news: Bruce Willis wants to make Die Hard 4.0.
The bad news: Bruce Willis needs to make Die Hard 4.0.
Willis is enduring yet another slump, with four flops in as many years. So forget that Willis guaranteed in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that there could never be a fourth Die Hard. And who better to save Willis from his latest career crisis than John McClane?
Die Hard 4.0 won’t go into production until the fall at the earliest, if at all, but that’s not stopping Willis from once again engaging in McClane-type heroics.
In Hostage, burned-out police chief Willis tries to rescue a mafia accountant’s family held at gunpoint in their home. Guess if Steven Seagal, Keanu Reeves and Nicolas Cage can make millions with their Die Hard clones, so can Willis.
What’s stopping Hostage from being Die Hard in a multimillion dollar compound? Hopefully the twist that finds Willis willing to sacrifice the accountant’s family in order save his own after they’re taken hostage.
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Bruce Willis’ Greatest Hits | |
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| 1. The Sixth Sense $293.5M | |||
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| 2. Armageddon $201.5M | |||
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| 3. Die Hard 2: Die Harder $117.5M | |||
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| 4. Pulp Fiction $107.5M | |||
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| 5. Die Hard: With a Vengeance $100M | |||
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And there’s Florent Siri. He’s the French director responsible for The Nest, a hyperkinetic homage to Assault on Precinct 13 that proved more gripping and respectful than the bullet-to-the-brain remake of John Carpenter’s urban western.
If Siri can make audiences forget Die Hard, then Hostage could become Willis‘ personal best since 2000’s Unbreakable.
If not, Willis doesn’t have time to mull over his losses. In April, he’s making sure crime doesn’t pay in Sin City.
Not that there’s any pressure on Willis. That burden falls on director Robert Rodriguez. He’s taken on the task of turning Frank Miller’s series of blood-splattered graphic novels into the Pulp Fiction of comic-book adaptations. No small task, but one the mastermind behind the El Mariachi and Spy Kids trilogy can handle.
Smart move by Willis to join Sin City, whose other denizens include Jessica Alba, Benicio Del Toro, Josh Hartnett, Clive Owen, Mickey Rourke and Elijah Wood. Willis once pursued small roles to work with such legends as Paul Newman, Dustin Hoffman and director Robert Altman. He was never better than when he was fighting for his life as boxer Butch Coolidge in Pulp Fiction.
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Bruce Willis’ Greatest Misses | |
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| 1. Breakfast of Champions $178,278 | |||
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| 2. In Country $3.5M | |||
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| 3. Sunset $4.5M | |||
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| 4. North $7.1M | |||
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| 5. Billy Bathgate $15.5M | |||
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Willis‘ willingness to be a team player earned him praise and respect, which he had sorely lacked after he bolted Moonlighting to pursue a film career. But since audiences refused to indulge in Breakfast of Champions (1999), a sorry attempt to bring Kurt Vonnegut’s literary social satire to life, Willis has steered clear of anything remotely difficult to sell to the masses. He’s also stopped taking on those much-admired supporting roles, with the exception of portraying himself in the embarrassingly smug Ocean’s Twelve.
Sin City offers Willis a chance to pay penchant for such recent criminal acts as Bandits, Tears of the Sun and The Whole Ten Yards. The rewards are big if everyone flocks to Sin City, with Willis regaining much of the credibility he received from Pulp Fiction and The Player.
Odd, but playing it safe has blown up in Willis‘ face.
Perhaps Willis realizes now is the take stock of matters by accepting quality roles, big or small. He plays the father of a baby-faced drug dealer in the fact-based Alpha Dog, directed by The Notebook‘s Nick Cassavetes. In Lucky Slevin, Willis costars with Josh Hartnett, Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley in a gangster tale told over the course of 25 years.
He’s also lent his voice to Over the Hedge, replacing Jim Carrey as rascally raccoon R.J. in the DreamWorks’ CGI caper due May 2006.
Other possible Willis projects sounds vaguely intriguing. Solace pits psychic Willis against a serial killer, and 16 Blocks proves a long walk for Willis‘ as his cop attempts to deliver a witness unharmed to a nearby police station.
The Bottom Line
Willis needs a hit, and Hostage could finally help him break out his four-year slump. Sin City can add polish to Willis‘ tarnished reputation if it becomes a phenomenon à la Pulp Fiction. If not, there’s always Die Hard 4.0 Too bad, though, Willis scurries back to the Die Hard franchise whenever the going gets tough, but at least it’s nice to see him again as a team player in grittier, artier fare.
