Fox charged itself to rent Nakatomi Plaza

How to watch Die Hard on TV this Christmas 2019ġ2.

Not bad for someone who wasn't even third choice. Now $5million is still plenty of dollar today, but was an unheard-of fee for a film role at the time and had to be personally approved by Fox President Rupert Murdoch. Therefore the early marketing material barely featured him - the Nakatomi Plaza building got more coverage. Willis was known for his comedy work, particularly as David Addison in Moonlighting, and seemed far from the action legend we know today.

Willis wasn't taken seriously as an action hero Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Robert De Niro, Mel Gibson, Richard Gere and Burt Reynolds were all apparently considered or turned down the role before Willis was reluctantly cast. Bruce Willis wasn't even second choice for the roleĪfter Sinatra and Eastwood turned the part down, Willis was far from a shoo-in for the role.

None other than Clint Eastwood held the movie rights to Nothing Lasts Forever in the early '80s and planned to star himself, but eventually passed on the project. Sinatra turned it down, which is probably for the best - we can't imagine him running round in a vest shouting McClane's explicit catchphrase. Having played the lead character in The Detective film adaptation, producers were contractually obliged to first offer Sinatra the role despite him being aged 73 at the time. Alas, this seems to be a case of fake news - while a sequel was in the work, screenwriter for both films Stephen De Souza has insisted that Die Hard was always meant to be standalone, and was never linked to Commando. One of the most popular internet urban legends state that the film was originally meant to be a sequel to the 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger action extravaganza and was later rewritten. Luckily the book was republished in 2013, just in time for Die Hard's 25th anniversary. Nothing Lasts Forever went out of printĭespite inspiring one of the most influential action movies of all time, the book went out of print not long after the first film's release. That dream would then become the plot of his next book, and of course, Die Hard. Thorp first came up with the idea for Nothing Lasts Forever by falling asleep watching the Steve McQueen disaster film, and dreaming of a man being chased through a skyscraper by men with guns. The book was based on The Towering Inferno

Die hard christmas zoom background