Die Hard prequel killed hard by Disney

Die Hard fans looking forward to diving deeper into the marital problems between John McClane and Holly Gennero might want to sit down. We’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is we’ll never have to hear someone say, “The Die Hard prequel is a Christmas movie.” The bad news is we’re not getting a new Die Hard movie any time soon.

The Die Hard prequel, tentatively titled McClane, is dead… hard. Following the dismal box office returns on 2013's A Good Day To Die Hard, producers announced a prequel/reboot to the series. Well, the story of how Gennero ended up in Los Angeles will go untold, according to producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura.

“Yeah, no, it’s not happening,” di Bonaventura said. “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.”

Refashioning a script to fit the Die Hard mold is a long-running tradition in the series. For example, Die Hard 2 was initially based on the book 58 Minutes, which had no ties to McClane. And, Die Hard With A Vengeance was almost a Lethal Weapon sequel before screenwriters slotted in Bruce Willis’ character.

Honestly, the idea behind the prequel is kind of interesting—or, at least, something a little different. The movie, which was to be directed by series veteran Len Wiseman (Live Free Or Die Hard, Underworld), would be a Godfather Part 2-style joint narrative featuring young McClane and old McClane. “What was interesting about our idea was it allowed you the ability to meet the young John McClane and use Bruce,” said di Bonaventura. “So it was really interesting in that way. So you sort of got to see both versions of him.”

As for the future of Die Hard, that’s up to Disney, who is currently diving into a pool of intellectual property, like a content-rich Scrooge McDuck. Nevertheless, di Bonaventura says that he doesn’t know what their plans for the franchise are. But it does seem like Disney is at least toying with the idea of taking some of their hyper-violent properties (isn’t it great referring to movies as property?) out of the Disney vault, such as the recently announced Noah Hawley Alien series.

For the time being, though, it looks like Die Hard will have to live on in the form of kitschy ugly Christmas sweaters.

[via Polygon]