Genre: Action.
Studio:
20th Century Fox.
Production Company:
Unknown.
Project Phase: Development Hell.
Who's In It:
Well, we're assuming Bruce Willis will be back to portray the cop that is to terrorists
what lightning rods are to major storms, Detective John McClane.
Who's Making It:
Unknown. However, the script the movie is to be based on is called Tears of the Sun.
Premise: A 'jungle' setting has been mentioned as the location for this film.
Release Date: Unknown.
Comments: What do you do when you're the studio that produces a action film that is so popular, the film's set-up and twisting double-crossed protanogists actually forge a new sub-genre - the "Die Hard on a..." genre? Well, you make sequels, silly.
Die Hard - the building blows up.
Die Hard 2 - Die Harder - the airport blows up.
Die Hard With A Vengence - the city of New York blows up.
So, what do you decide to blow up in the fourth movie to top the previous three? Well, if the rumors are true, the fourth film will have McClane somewhere in a jungle enviroment - presumably, running for his life while the surroundings blow up. It's unconfirmed if there will be any terrorists with model hair and lovely foreign accents just yet.
Rumors: May, 1995... Published interviews with various cast and crew members of the Die Hard With A Vengence film mention that kinetic filmmaker Quentin Tarantino told Bruce Willis that he'd 'love to do the fourth film.' You just never know...
Scoop Feedback:
July 16, 1996... Daily Variety reports that Fox is considering a jungle script for the fourth Die Hard film. [Scoops submitted by 'pkalapa' and Christian.]
July 18, 1996... The script is described as 'Deliverance in the Amazon'. The original script, 'Tears of the Sun' was originally an Australian-US co-production to have been directed by John Woo and shot in North Queensland, or so says this scoop's source. [Scoop sent in by 'JockWu'; orignally presented in the Sydney Morning Herald, July 18 1996 edition.]
August 4, 1996... A script is now in place based on the original Tears of the Sun script. Robert Lawrence had been trying to develop the original property for the past six months at 20th Century Fox, and attracted the interest of John Woo at one point. [Scoop info mailed in by 'shape'.]
Fox announced that absolutely nothing has been finalized about the next installment of Die Hard, although it looks like it will indeed be based on the Tears of the Sun script. Filming probably won't begin for at least a year because of Bruce Willis' busy schedule. He will also join the $20 million dollar club when he makes the film. Brucie would get a cool $20 mil for the gig. [Scoop supplied by Christian "McClane".]
And when Willis does the flick, he may receive an additional 20% backend of the film's profits. [Scoop sent in by 'Compukiller'; originally appeared in The Hollywood Reporter.]
September 24, 1996... This fellow was involved in a thing called 'The Media Workshop' in Los Angeles this past August, and one of the lecturers was the president of Cinergi motion pictures (the producers of Die Hard 3 and current co-owner of the Die Hard franchise along with 20th Century Fox.) He said that a fourth installment was "very likely," but there was no story line yet and a director had yet to be be signed. He also said that John McTiernan would not be returning (he hinted that this was due to the director's price tag) and that Renny Harlin was also not a consideration because of the negative press surrounding him (Cutthroat Island anyone?) The lecturer also said that Jan De Bont (Twister) and Michael Bay (The Rock) are the two front runners for directors. [Scoop filed by 'Sgt. Spanky'.]
June 17, 1997... The script is done, and Bruce is ready to rock, but don't believe reports that Wllis is signed or the film is about to enter production. Over the past week, various Internet sites (including Harry Knowles' Ain't it Cool News) and trade papers have printed that Bruce had agreed to star for $25 million plus a generous back-end deal. Well, Fox is officially denying this, saying that while negotiations are going on between the actor and the studio, Bruce Willis has not signed. Furthermore, production will not begin this summer. Willis is committed to star in Disney's Armageddon, lensing this July. However, a start date for Die Hard 4 sometime later this year is not out of the question. [Sent in by Diane.]
July 6, 1997... We're told that the original Tears of the Sun script was written by Ron Bass (his most recent work being Julia Roberts' My Best Friend's Wedding. The scooper compared the original Bass script to another of his thrillers, Sleeping With the Enemy. We're trying to confirm Bass' involvement with the project. [Sent in by 'Bass Master'.]
July 29, 1997... An anonymous email details what the original Tears of the Sun script was about. While returning from a business meeting somewhere in South America, a group of Wall Street execs decide to be adventurous and land their private jet on a hidden landing strip deep in the jungle. While on the ground they are surrounded by men armed to the teeth - the private army of the strip's owners, which are local druglords. Eventually four men are left to contend with getting out of the jungle on their own while being hunted. Unfortunately the scooper had no idea what changes have been made to the script to prep it for the Die Hard franchise. [Sent in by 'Scoopmeister'.]
September 17, 1997... A small piece of gossip was sent to us. In the email, the scooper wrote that the original Tears of the Sun script has been modified to include Detective McClane as "hired security." Time will tell is this is legit. [Scooped anonymously.]
October 7, 1997... A recent interview in an unknown magazine with Spawn screenwriter Alan McElroy mentioned that one of the upcoming projects for him was the next Die Hard picture. [Scooped anonymously.]
January 11, 1998... This scooper sent us this item a few months back, and we tried using some of our connections to confirm parts of it. It took a while, but essentially what the scooper tells us is was the latest direction the Die Hard 4 producers wanted to take...
"The current script for Die Hard 4 is a re-working of a script that Fox has owned since 1995, I believe. It's called 'Tears of the Sun,' and involves a group of businessmen who land in the jungle, thinking they're in the midst of a high-stakes military 'game.' Since The Game was in development, Fox decided to shelf the project, but owed its screenwriters a very large pay-or-play deal. So, with Die Hard 4 being a constant priority at the studio, they decided to rework the storyline to incorporate Bruce Willis's character.
"The storyline **now** goes like this: Willis and his wife are flying to visit his brother in South America. Their plane is also playing host to a high-ranking (and disgraced) U.S. general (shades of Die Hard 2) flying incognito. So, the fun begins when South American nationalists rig the plane to gas the plane with a biochemical toxin that infects the entire crew.
"The plane is forced to land in the middle of a jungle, where the nationalists have a high-tech compound that gives them a distinct military advantage over U.S. nuclear bombardment and the like. The general is taken off the plane, where he is taken hostage for military approved experiments done to S.A. soldiers in the 1980s. Bruce Willis, of course, attempts to save the day -- however, his troubles are compounded by his growing sickness. Can he save his wife, the passengers, and himself from certain death? Can he recapture the general? Can he blow up kingdom come? Of course.
"The idea of Die Hard 4 is to take John McClane out of 'familiar territory' and put him on **very** foreign soil. The compound is huge, complete with airstrips, underground missle silos, and other places where the action can take place.
"I'd divulge other elements of the screenplay, but no one would believe me. I'm stretching my credibility pretty thin here, anyway. Like I said -- you'll just have to trust me.
"Martin Campbell has expressed in an interest in directing the next Die Hard, too."
Like we said, we tried to check into some facts of the scooper's alleged plot synopsis, but it took us a while. The director the scooper mentions, Martin Campbell, has just helmed The Mask of Zorro and previous to that, 1995's GoldenEye. Willis' dance card for 1998/99 is filling up fast, with more than a half-dozen leading man roles in various stages of preparation for him. With that much activity in his filofax, can Fox speed up the progress of DH4? [Scoop smuggled in by 'cpfuhr'.]
January 12, 1998... An anonymous scooper follows up to yesterday's latest: they say that the Tears of the Sun premise is no longer going to be used for Die Hard 4. The reason given is that 'they' (Fox, we're assuming) couldn't cut a deal with the Bruce, so the Tears project is now being reconcieved to fit an outer space/future paradigm. The scooper hasn't heard anymore about a new premise for DH4. [Anonymous.]
May 18, 1998... The Internet is abuzz with the rumor that the next Die Hard film will be based on Anderson's Ignition novel. Anderson hasn't heard anything about it himself, and our listening devices at TwenCen didn't pick up any conversations about the rumor. Either it's false or the Fox people have finally figured out that they should communicate in sign language when development meetings take place. [Thanks to 'The Schank', '778 million', 'Dinkadee1' and 'Rufus'.]
June 23, 1998... While responding to questions from fans looking forward to Kevin Smith's next film, Dogma, Ben Affleck said the following when asked about the chances of him and his Armageddon co-star Bruce Willis working together again at some point:
August 3, 1998... Wanna read more about the original Tears of the Sun script the new Die Hard concept is derived from? Then you'll want to scope out this next scooper's review of the original Ron Bass script who doesn't take a shine to the source material....'
"I don't know if you've seen/read the original Tears of the Sun script on which DH4 is being based on, but I picked it up at a movie memorabilia store and just finished reading it, and I thought I might give you a brief review of it.
"TOTS, written by Ron Bass (Rain Man, My Best Friend's Wedding, What Dreams May Come), is a pretty standard Hollywood action script that involves a group of essentially ordinary people being thrown into a series of life-threatening situations in the Amazon rainforest. The group consists of a cowboy, a female doctor, a black construction foreman, a Mormon college student, and a wealthy architect. In the beginning, they're all working on a strip-mining operation near the upper Amazon, but a series of unfortunate circumstances land them in the grips of some bad guys (I won't reveal any more than that). So, they have to figure out a plan to escape. Not a bad plotline per se, but it takes *way* too long to get into the crux of the story, and the climax is dull, short, and unimaginative. This might be acceptable is Bass had thrown in a lot of interesting character development and conflict, but the characters never manage to escape their Hollywood stereotypes.
"Aside from all that, I really don't see this as a Die Hard movie. The one interesting facet of this script is that it involves ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. Throw in John McClane and it would *really* be trite.
"With John McTiernan at the helm and some solid rewriting by the likes of Jeb Stuart or possibly Shane Black, this *might* end up a halfway decent production. But I wouldn't get my hopes up."
['Necros' is a veteran of many adventures down the rivers of Amazon.com.]
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