Two bits of Die Hard 4 News Today. The first is regarding the change of “language” in the new Die Hard Film. It is being suggested that the language has been toned down greatly, so much so that the battle cry of the series if muffled out with a gunshot. We get the following update on this issue from filmwad:
Ifitsmovies reports that Live Free or Die Hard, the fourth (and thus far, the sole PG-13) installment in the Die Hard series does not include the complete line, “Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.”
In a considerably long review, a guy named Tom’s Wrathman calls it a pretty mediocre action flick (“It feels very much like a sequel to Die Hard With A Vengeance, only not as good, in the same way that Die Harder felt a lot like Die Hard, but not as good”) and then drops the bombshell.
“As for the language? First up, he doesn’t say “Yippee Kay Ay Mother Fucker”. He says “Yippee Kay Ay Mother Fu-GUNSHOT”.
I do not care if profanity is in film, when writing a story you pick the words that best represent what you want the characters to say. The problem I have with the language change in this film is that it seems out of character for John McLean to quit smoking and swearing. If I had to hazard a guess I would assume that the change was made to open the box office to a wider audience rather than for reasons of morality.
We will wait and see, if the film rules I will be less upset about the changes. I did see the first 10 minutes and they were pretty good as far as I was concerned, but I am holding off my enthusiasm until I see the whole shebang.
In other Die Hard news today it appears that Bruce Willis has considered doing a Die Hard prequel as well. We get the following scoop from cinemablend via an MTV interview.
The fact that Bruce wants to do Die Hard till he dies is no surprise, what’s new is that for some reason he wants to do a Die Hard prequel as well. He says, “There was a time when we discussed doing another ‘Die Hard’ as doing a prequel — kind of John McClane, the early years.” You’d think that would mean he can’t be in it, but you’d be wrong. “But I’ve kind of missed that window now, unless they come up with some type of new technology where they can smooth out these wrinkles — you know, these laugh lines — that I have on my face. But I would do [a prequel] if I could; I think as an actor, it’s just a matter of how I look.” Well they have come up with such a technology. See X-Men: The Last Stand for reference.
Even with modern technology I do not think a Die Hard prequel with Willis would make sense at this point. You can use cg on his face and staple a wig to his head, I do not think people will buy it. We may see another Die Hard film, but at this point in the game I do not think the public or Bruce Willis would care to play a rookie John McLean.
What I want to see is John McLean the retiree fighting terrorists at his Florida retirement community. That is an action film with a lot of chinos and Hawaiian shirts.
