Live Free or Die Hard director Len Wiseman told Collider a few details about the proposed fifth Die Hard sequel, tentatively called Die Hard: Year One. The director talks about what prompted the idea for the film:
“After doing the fourth one, there were so many conversations that Bruce [Willis] and I were having about what he put into the character for Die Hard 1. That character comes in with so much baggage, emotionally, and experience. He’s already divorced, he’s bitter, his Captain hates him and doesn’t want him back. So, what created that guy?”
He also gave a bit on information about what to expect from the plot, and how it ties to the first film:
“We’ve never seen the actual love story. We know its demise, but we’ve never seen what it was like when he met Holly, or when he was a beat cop in ‘78 in New York when there was no chance of him making detective. It’s always been something I’ve been thinking about, and now we’re doing it. And it ties in.”
The story will cut between present day and John McClane’s formative years, acting as both a sequel and a prequel, which will obviously mean recasting the role. But Wiseman stresses how involve Bruce Willis will be in the film:
“The reason I say prequel/sequel is because I wasn’t going to do it without Bruce. I’m also not going to do it with Bruce being a cameo bookend gimmick. It’s really working into the plot, with the ‘70s having ramifications on present-day Bruce. It inter-cuts in a very fun, imaginative way with present-day John McClane. The film itself will take place on New Years’ Eve 1979, so trying to gear things towards that would be fun, if we could come out around the same time, but these movies take their own paths.”
The director talks a bit about casting someone to fill MCane’s, and Willis’, shoes:
“It has to be somebody that has the swagger and the confidence, but also the charm, the wit, the charisma and the toughness. It’s asking a lot, especially in somebody that’s younger. It has to feel like the guy owns it, rather than is trying to put it on.”
Sounds like a daunting task. Maybe as daunting as attempting to recast Han Solo.