Folks that were clamoring for the Die Hard prequel/sequel may be quite upset. The project that was being helmed by Len Wiseman, The Conjuring screenwriters Chad and Carey Hayes, and producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura has been shelved by Disney.
The plan was for the the film to cut
back and forth between present day, where Willis would once again be playing the role of John McClane, and December 31st, 1978, where McClane would be played by a younger actor. This would allow Willis to draw in another McClane-sized paycheck, while passing most of the action over to the younger actor.
Lorenzo di Bonaventura has revealed that Disney shelved it when they acquired Fox in an interview with Polygon,
Yeah, no, it’s not happening. 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. 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].”
In 1978, the younger McClane would be working as a beat cop and dating his future wife / ex-wife Holly. Whatever happened at that time in McClane’s life,
what we see in the ‘70s has ramifications on present day Bruce.”
