Live Free Or Die Hard out today! Any Freaks see it yet?

[pjam]

The orginal Die Hard is pretty much the Citizen Kane of action/adventure films. And I'm not just saying that because it's so old that by today's audiences' standards it's practically in black and white.

It took a cop movie (in fact the original is a sequel to a Frank Sinatra movie -- this is the fifth John McClane film) and blended it with a disaster movie. It's the movie that imported jump cutting from the art houses of Europe. It gave us crawling through air vents with nothing but a Zippo and a cool dry wit. It gave us the perfect ticking clock. It gave us one of the coolest bad guys ever. And it gave us Bruce Willis.

Was it taken from a Sinatra Sequel gdb? I know that the original DIEHARD was adapted from the Roderick Thorpe book "Nothing Lasts Forever" by Jeb Stuart. I know Jeb, he told me that he was signed on to write a Film for Disney but they were so slow in paying him (they are notorious slow payers) that he took this gig and was given 6 weeks to write it.

Jeb was THE architect for the Diehard Screenplay, the Story, Elements, Characters, etc. It was his genius as a Storyteller which made Diehard possible and it is still considered the greatest Action Film of all time... and still holds up today.

 

[gdb]

Yes. It was the same route that Hannibal took, but with different results. After Thorpe's book "The Detective" was turned into a movie, the producers told Thorpe to write a sequel, in book form, and that they would buy it. They did but Frank turned down the role and without his name attached...

I've never read "Nothing Lasts Forever." Last I checked it was out of print. I've heard it was inspired by the book "The Glass Inferno" which was of course turned into Towering Inferno. I'd love to give it a go sometime to compare to Jeb's script. I understand that there are more differences than simularities but those are what makes it fun. To see what Jeb started with and see how he turned it into a masterpiece.

 

[pjam]

Interesting, thanks gdb!

You can pick up the book and some reviews on Amazon or get a thumbnail of it from Wikipedia I imagine...

It was about an older guy (not named McClane) visiting his daughter and her child at a Skyscraper when bad guys took over... there was not that much action and the Father's dialogue was not very inspiring as far as I know...

I should also credit Steven De Souza who was most responsible for some of the great dialogue and flourish in Diehard but the actual design of this Classic Film was all Jeb.

 

[LOTRFan]

So have we named all the collectibles from the film yet:

Wolvie Comiquette, Scarface PF, 1/4 Endo, Bowen Vision, Bowen Giant Man bust (?), Obi Wan PF, a Buffy 12" (?)

What else ...

 

[gdb]

It was about an older guy (not named McClane) visiting his daughter and her child at a Skyscraper when bad guys took over... there was not that much action and the Father's dialogue was not very inspiring as far as I know...

Det. Sgt. Joe Leland! I forgot they changed the name. I did a lot of research for a project I was working on but that was 5 years ago.