‘After the third one, I never saw any of the others…’
Die Hard and The Fugitive are two of the most iconic action movies of all time, and they were both written by the same guy: Jeb Stuart.
Another thing they have in common is that there has been a lot of talk recently about both franchises getting another entry into their respective series.
Die Hard was reportedly gearing up for a prequel movie, tentatively titled Die Hard: Year One, but when Disney bought out Fox, that movie was put on ice, and now a TV series titled McClane is apparently in the works.
Meanwhile, The Fugitive (originally a TV series in the 1960s, and then again in 2000/2001) had one sequel, the not-very-good U.S. Marshals. Warner Brothers are reportedly in the middle of working out a remake with director Albert Hughes (From Hell, The Book Of Eli), but it probably won’t arrive for a good while yet.
JOE had a nice long chat with the legendary screenwriter before he heads over to Ireland to give a screenwriting masterclass in the IFI (full details here), and one of the things we
On the remake of The Fugitive:
“That would be interesting. They had definitely not come knowing on my door. Which, by the way, I’m not sure that I would have any interest in going back and doing that. I think it needs that. It needs something completely fresh. If you’re going to remake something like The Fugitive, then you really have to reimagine it. Totally. I think that is really cool.”
On the Die Hard sequels:
“I’m glad that they’ve made other Die Hards. I think the character can stand for it. I was only brought in to advise on the second one, which was not one of my favourites. They used an existing script that Fox owned called 58 Minutes. It was a really well-written action script by Doug Richardson [who went on to write the scripts for Bad Boys and Money Train] and there was a change of regime at Fox. They needed a tentpole movie and ‘What do we have that we can make into Die Hard 2?’, and they grabbed Doug’s script and they sort of squeezed it into it.
“I was off working with Eddie Murphy on another sequel, on Another 48 Hours, so I wasn’t available. To be really honest, after number three, I never saw any of the others. I’m very happy with the first one, but it is not something that would necessarily appeal to me, to go back to do. I like moving on to other things and I’ve been very fortunate to have that opportunity.”
You can listen to our full chat here, or check it out on your preferred podcast app here:
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