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Die Hard is an iconic feature that forever changed the action movie landscape. Countless films have imitated it, but none have done it better. You don’t have to take my word for it, though. Quentin Tarantino and his Video Archives Podcast cohost Roger Avary spent a few moments discussing the epic picture on last week’s episode. After listening, it’s clear to me that the Reservoir Dogs filmmaker holds the feature in high regard.

“If you live in a world where Die Hard already existed, it means nothing to you or you already know it’s a terrific movie,” explained Tarantino. “What was so great about Die Hard is you didn’t know that walking in. It’s just so clever, and it’s so expertly made.”

I concur with Tarantino. Die Hard made me fall in love with action cinema. I saw it for the first time several decades ago.

Netflix’s slate of under-the-radar action movies has delivered another brutal success with Aftermath, an action thriller that has been previously compared to Die Hard by some. The film arrived on Netflix earlier this week following its blink-and-you-miss-it limited theatrical release in November 2024, and immediately jumped up to #2 in the movie chart, seemingly bringing another blistering thrill ride to the streamer to follow in the footsteps of 2024’s Rebel Ridge and Carry-On.

Aftermath stars Dylan Sprouse and Mason Gooding, with Patrick Lussier in the director’s chair. The synopsis of the movie reads: “Trapped on Boston's Tobin Bridge after a bomb explodes, a former Army Ranger must use his elite training to save his sister and fellow hostages from a group of vengeful ex-military contractors led by an unhinged war criminal.”

This all sounds to be a very thrilling and tense scenario, and one that will instantly prick up the...

Netflix has very much been in the action business lately, with hits like Rebel Ridge and Carry-On cementing the streamer as one to watch when it comes to the popular genre. Now, the platform has gotten its hands on another explosive action flick...though it may not be quite the same critical slam-dunk as Aaron Pierre’s revenge thriller or Taron Egerton’s gripping Christmas adventure. Starring former Disney actor and Big Daddy star Dylan Sprouse, Aftermath finds the actor leading the charge as a war veteran suffering from Ptsd who finds himself being held hostage on Boston's Tobin Memorial Bridge by a group of ex-military revolutionists. It sounds like they made a classic action movie mistake.

Aftermath is all set to land on Netflix on February 10, 2025 (via What's on Netflix), this B-movie action delight comes courtesy of director Patrick Lussier, who is best known for helming the likes of...

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Christmas is just around the corner, and it’s time to see brilliant classic movies, but if you are not in the mood to see Home Alone or Jingle All the Way for a millionth and want to see some adult movies. We at CinemaBlind have prepared a list of 11 best R-rated Christmas movies you can check out.

Violent Night (Starz & Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Universal Pictures

Violent Night is a Christmas action comedy film directed by Tommy Wirkola from a screenplay co-written by Pat Casey and Josh Miller. The 2022 film follows Santa Claus as he comes across a wealthy family’s compound, where an elite team of mercenaries has kidnapped the family on Christmas Eve. Violent Night stars David Harbour, John Leguizamo, Alex Hassell, Alexis Louder, and Beverly D’Angelo.

Die Hard Credit – 20th Century Fox

Die Hard...

Taron Egerton has teased the connections between his upcoming Netflix movie and the seminal Bruce Willis classic Die Hard. Based on Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever, the producers of 1988’s Die Hard had originally approached a number of well-known action stars to assume the role of John McLane, including both Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Eventually, however, director John McTiernan settled on Bruce Willis, best known at the time for his role in the television comedy Moonlighting.

Despite receiving mixed critical reactions at the time of its release, Die Hard’s strong box office performance, combined with a far more favorable response from general audiences, firmly established Willis as one of Hollywood’s most bankable action stars. Eventually spawning four sequels, the original Die Hard would also eventually come to be regarded as one of the best action movies of all-time, and its Christmas Eve setting has left...

This topic has been debated for decades since Die Hard was released, but despite what naysayers believe, it is a Christmas movie. The film’s screenwriter himself Steven E. de Souza confirmed in a 2017 Tweet that the film is a Christmas flick, even if the star, Bruce Willis, passionately declared during a 2018 Comedy Central roast that Die Hard is not a Christmas movie. Nonetheless, regardless of beliefs about this national treasure of a film, yippee-ki-yay, because it’s conveniently available to stream for free via Tubi in December, just in time for Christmas!

Die Hard

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*Availability in US Release Date July 15, 1988Cast Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart BochnerRuntime 132 minutesMain Genre Action What Is Die Hard About?

Die Hard is a 1988 action movie based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. Bruce Willis stars John McClane, an NYPD detective who...

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This December, Tubi is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the supernatural thriller drama series Haven to the historical drama series Black Sails. However, for this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Tubi in the next month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the five best films that are coming to Tubi in December 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Die Hard (December 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – 20th Century Studios

Die Hard is an action thriller film directed by John McTiernan from a screenplay co-written by Jeb Stuart and Steve E. de Souza. Based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp, the 1988 film follows a New York City police detective in Los Angeles to make up with his wife. Still, when terrorists take over his wife’s office building,...

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This November, Prime Video is bringing you a lot of entertainment from the dark detective fiction series titled Cross to a thrilling teen drama series titled Cruel Intentions. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Prime Video this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 13 best films that are coming to Prime Video in November 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Carrie (November 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – United Artists

Carrie is a supernatural horror drama film directed by Brian De Palma from a screenplay by Lawrence D. Cohen. Based on the 1974 epistolary novel of the same name by Stephen King, the 1976 film follows Carrie White, a teenage girl living with a controlling mother who also gets bullied at school. But what...

The boss of 20th Century Studios has revealed what is going on with the iconic action movie franchise, Die Hard. Speaking with THR about all manner of upcoming projects, Asbell offered a brief, but no less teasing, update on Die Hard 6. Following the retirement of franchise lead and beloved actor Bruce Willis, fans have been happy to let the series lie dormant. But, according to Asbell, that wont always be the case. Asked if there are currently any Die Hard plans, Asbell replied...

No, not yet.

While incredibly brief, the addition of not yet strongly suggests that, eventually, the studio does plan to return to the explosive world of John McClane. Sadly, Die Hard lead Bruce Willis is now out of action after being diagnosed with aphasia and later with frontotemporal dementia. The Hollywood icon, of course, played the beloved John McClane throughout the Die Hard series, with his last...

Yippe ki-kay! From marvelous quotes to a hero who literally runs circles around terrorists without any shoes, Die Hard is one top-floor outing youll remember for a long time. In an era populated by muscle-bound, frowning, bullet-dodging protagonists, the film felt refreshing thanks to its reliance on a witty, motor-mouthed central character. That person was John McClane, an NYPD detective hoping to reconcile with his wife at an office party held by her employer, only to find himself in the middle of a hostage situation. Whenever he wasnt firing his weapon, McClane was busy countering the villains threats with pop culture referencing shady burns.

Die Hard Release Date July 15, 1988Director John McTiernanCast Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Reginald VelJohnson, Paul Gleason, William Atherton, Hart BochnerRuntime 131Main Genre Action

Today, its hard to picture anyone other than Bruce Willis in the role. However, he was way down the pecking order during casting season.

This September, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment with the highly anticipated Season 2 of The Old Man, an all-new sports drama series, and the second season of the brilliant animated series Krapopolis. However, for the purposes of this article, we are only including the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 5 best films that are coming to Hulu in September 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (September 1)

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 91%

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is a dystopian sci-fi action thriller directed by Matt Reeves from a screenplay co-written by Mark Bomback, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver. The 2014 film is the second film in the Planet of the Apes reboot film series and it revolves around Caesar, the chimpanzee leader of the evolved apes. He...

During a period in the evolution of Hollywood’s entertainment boom, Bruce Willis was a name that flew under the radar for every studio in town. The actor was only as good as a zany, smooth-talking private detective on the small screen — a role that hardly reflected his destined career as an indomitable movie star.

Die Hard [Credit: 20th Century Fox]

Meanwhile, as a TV star, he was far from billable in a feature film, let alone in a leading role capacity. The industry was teeming with the likes of Tom Cruise and Robert Redford and Willis didn’t fit into that category. His association with the comedy genre hardly improved his image when considering actors in the action arena.

Betrayed by his television popularity and reduced to an off-beat actor in an off-beat series — that was the start to the epic Hollywood journey of Bruce Willis that turned him into...

John McClane may have made a sneaky appearance in the movie Pearl Harbor. Although no one has ever confirmed the figure as John McClane, director Michael Bay could be paying homage to the actor after their Armageddon collaboration. The resemblance of the figure in Pearl Harbor to John McClane remains a mystery, raising questions about a possible post-production prank or tribute.

Bruce Willis is known for playing John McClane in the Die Hard films, but may have also had a sneaky cameo in a totally unrelated 2001 war movie. Widely regarded to be one of Bruce Willis' best action movie characters, John McClane is the central protagonist of the Die Hard franchise. A police detective and all-round tough guy, McClane is known for his distinctive white tank top, which he wears for the bulk of the first Die Hard movie.

Die Hard may be among Bruce Willis' best movie franchises, but...

The pitch was "Rambo in an office building." In the 1980s, the idea of a Rambo type in anything, anywhere would at least get your project shuttled down the studio production pipeline. 20th Century Fox rightly believed they had a potential winner in "Die Hard." So why was the project anathema to every A-list movie star in Hollywood?

Perhaps it was the pedigree. "Die Hard" was an adaptation of Roderick Thorp's action novel "Nothing Lasts Forever," the author's 1979 sequel to his 1966 bestseller "The Detective." That cop thriller had been turned into a 1968 star vehicle for Frank Sinatra, who was nearing the end of his 1960s big-screen comeback. It was a solid hit for 20th Century Fox, but, despite a feint toward grittiness, it was viewed as nothing more than a paycheck gig for the Chairman.

So 20 years later, when Fox spied blockbuster potential in Thorp's sequel (which was...

You may be aware that Die Hard is based on a novel, Nothing Lasts Forever. You may even know that Frank Sinatra had dibs on the role of John McClane, which, as we know, went to Bruce Willis after Ol' Blue Eyes passed on the role. But what you may not know is that the novel Die Hard is based on is, itself, inspired by another film: The Towering Inferno. As the story goes, author Roderick Thorp had a dream in which gun-wielding protagonists chase a man through a building, and that dream came to him the same night he saw the 1974 master disaster film. So what is the movie that turned Willis and Paul Newman into screen cousins? Only what famed movie critic Roger Ebert cites as the "best of the mid-1970s wave of disaster films."...

Quick Links John McClane Was The Working Man's Action Hero John McClane Was A Man Out Of His Depth The Die Hard Sequels Inverted The Point Of John McClane Die Hard Was Made Great Through Being Relatable Die Hard introduced audiences to John McClane, an average cop who became a hero. Many action heroes were specially trained or their action scenes were over the top, the appeal of McClane is that he was an average person. The later Die Hard sequels forgot what made the first one so appealing.

In 1988, Die Hard took audiences by storm as it introduced Bruce Willis' John McClane, a New York cop forced to take on a heavily armed band of thieves at a Christmas party. After proving itself a strong hit at the box office, the movie gained its first sequel in 1990 and, from there, ballooned into a five-movie franchise, even landing some comics along the way.

Die Hard's success as a beloved Christmas classic is largely due to its departure from the bleak ending of the original book, Nothing Lasts Forever. In the book, the protagonist's family dynamic is different, and the daughter's character is portrayed negatively, which doesn't align with the theme of family and holiday cheer in the movie. The darker ending of the book, where the daughter dies alongside the main villain, would have made Die Hard less popular and less suited for holiday viewing.

Die Hard is a treasured holiday classic, but it might not be a staple of Christmas movie marathons if it stuck with its original ending. Die Hard is technically an adaptation of the novel Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp. Like the movie, Nothing Lasts Forever is about an N.Y.P.D. detective who attends an office Christmas party in a Los Angeles skyscraper that is...

Die Hard series ranked from worst to best(Photo Credit –IMDb)

Hey there, fellow list enthusiasts! Today, we’re diving into the world of Die Hard, the trendsetting classic that breathed new life into the action genre. With Bruce Willis stealing the spotlight as John McClane, the Die Hard franchise has etched its place in history as an unforgettable action movie series. Despite a slew of sequels, none quite capture the magic of the original. It’s a genre-shaping tale that didn’t invent action but spun it into something thrilling and adored by audiences.

So, grab your popcorn as we explore the Die Hard journey, from its roots in Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel, “Nothing Lasts Forever,” to ranking all five films in the series from least to most favorable. Let’s unravel the excitement and nostalgia of Die Hard’s enduring legacy!

5. A Good Day To Die Hard (2013) A Good Day To Die Hard...

Die Hard is heading back to theaters for the holiday season.

Originally released in 1988, Die Hard is a bloody action movie that happens to be set on Christmas. Every year, fans debate over whether they consider the film to be a genuine Christmas movie, or just a film that happens to be set on Christmas, with some arguing that there's a big difference between the two. In any case, per AMC, it's been announced that Die Hard is coming back to theaters for this year's Christmas season, set to hit the big screen for a limited time starting on Dec. 8, 2023.

Related How Violent Night Pays Homage to Die Hard As Violent Night rolls on, David Harbour's Santa Claus experiences a mission that nods in a couple of ways to the Die Hard franchise. Yippee-Ki-Yay! Die Hard is back at select #AMCTheatres starting December 8! Only for a limited time, so hurry!

There is a movie from 1968 starring Frank Sinatra that can be considered a prequel to Die Hard. The Detective was a box office success and one of Sinatra's biggest hits, but he declined the role of John McClane in Die Hard. The Detective is a detective story, while Die Hard embraces the high-energy tone of an action film. Both have compelling leading characters played by Sinatra and Willis, respectively.

There is a 1968 film that can technically be considered a prequel to the Die Hard film series starring Bruce Willis, with a prominent Hollywood star as the leading role. The first Die Hard movie hit theaters in 1988, introducing the iconic action hero John McClane (Willis), as he works to rescue hostages from terrorists on Christmas Eve. The film became a franchise of five Die Hard movies released between 1988 and 2013, but the original installment remains the most iconic.

Die Hard was...

Die Hard started out with low expectations and mixed reviews, but it became a beloved classic and a major success at the box office. Die Hard cemented Bruce Willis as an industry icon and introduced Alan Rickman as a talented actor. Die Hard 6 was canceled due to the poor reception of the previous film, the acquisition of 20th Century Fox by Disney, and Willis's retirement from the industry, but there are rumors of a reboot in the works.

When Die Hard hit theaters back in 1988, hopes weren't particularly high. And not only that: the reviews following its release weren't necessarily brilliant either. However, as years went by, everyone's perception of John McTiernan's film improved significantly, and Die Hard became one of the greatest classics of the action genre, shaping films of all kinds to this day.

Written by Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza and inspired by...

Director John McTiernan on the set of Die Hard Screenshot: YouTube When Die Hard hit theaters 35 years ago, it was like Christmas in July. The action classic, directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis, established a new standard for popcorn blockbusters when it opened wide on July 22, 1988. Willis’ leading...

Bruce Willis in Die HardScreenshot: 20th Century Studios

When Die Hard hit theaters 35 years ago, it was like Christmas in July. The action classic, directed by John McTiernan and starring Bruce Willis, established a new standard for popcorn blockbusters when it opened wide on July 22, 1988. Willis’ leading man status was...

The Christmas action classic Die Hard would make for a great book, a real page-turner with its intensity, fascinating characters, high stakes, and more. Except it's already been a book, specifically the 1979 Roderick Thorp novel Nothing Lasts Forever. The book itself is a sequel to one of Thorp's earlier novels, The Detective, which had been adapted into a Die Hard prequel of sorts starring Frank Sinatra. His hope to have Sinatra reprise the role in the sequel didn't work out. After several years, the novel would be adapted as Die Hard. Some changes had to be made to turn Thorp's novel into the Bruce Willis vehicle we know and love, but just how different are the two?...

Die Hard is an unquestioned action masterpiece. Thanks to revelatory performances by both Bruce Willis and Alan Rickman, plus John McTiernan’s assured direction, Die Hard still has the power to awe and entertain even decades after its release. Few can say the same about the sequels, but what about the Die Hard prequel, The Detective?

Oh, you’ve never heard of a Die Hard prequel? Well, that could be because the 1968 Frank Sinatra vehicle The Detective is based on the 1966 novel by the same name, written by Roderick Thorp. And in 1979, Thorp published a sequel to The Detective called Nothing Lasts Forever, in which criminals led by a man called Gruber take control of a Los Angeles high-rise during a company party. Gruber even holds hostage the family member of a hero cop who must go rogue upstairs if he is going to thwart the terrorists. Also it’s Christmas time.

While The Boys might be based on a successful comic book series, the superhero satire has managed to outdo its source material on numerous fronts. On occasion, an adaptation can improve on its inspiration. For example, author Michael Crichton’s novel Jurassic Park is a successful but unspectacular sci-fi story about a theme park gone wrong. Its 1993 movie adaptation Jurassic Park is one of director Steven Spielberg’s best movies and is widely viewed as one of the best blockbusters ever made. Similarly, the Roderick Thorp novel Nothing Lasts Forever is largely forgotten, while its movie adaption Die Hard is pretty well regarded.

While the comic book inspiration for The Boys is (usually) darker than the series itself, this doesn’t mean that the source material is better than its adaptation. Particularly after season 3, it is fair to say that The Boys has managed to outdo its source material. The Boys...

Early in 1987, producers Larry Gordon and Joel Silver were on the hunt for an action hero. They were working on a rollercoaster tale about terrorists hijacking a high-rise tower in Los Angeles and the script called for a muscle-bound bruiser.

For contractual reasons, Frank Sinatra was top of the list for Die Hard. Ol’ Blue Eyes had first refusal as he’d been the star of 1968’s The Detective, which like Die Hard was based on author Roderick Thorp’s thriller novels.

When the 70-year-old crooner confirmed his terrorist-fighting days were long behind him, producers went straight to the most obvious candidate: Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Terminator, Commando and Predator star said no, preferring to try his hand at comedy alongside Danny DeVito in Twins. The rejections kept coming: Richard Gere, Burt Reynolds, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Nick Nolte, Don Johnson and Mel Gibson all passed.

Way down the list was Bruce Willis.

Clint Eastwood was one of the first actors approached to play Die Hard's John McClane - only to claim he didn't get the gags. Die Hard made Bruce Willis an instant movie star, but the path to his casting was surprisingly convoluted. The film was based on the novel Nothing Lasts Forever, itself a follow-up to author Roderick Thorp's The Detective. The latter was made into a movie starring Frank Sinatra in the late '60s, meaning he had to be approached first. The singer had retired from acting following 1984's Cannonball Run 2, leading to a casting search that ended with Moonlighting star Willis.

Despite Willis' McClane - whose casting was weirdly controversial - being written as an everyman hero, every major action star of the time was approached. This includes Eastwood, who would have been in his late 50s during this period. Despite having played many cops roles during his career,...

Thirty-six floors. Thirteen terrorists. Three exclusive interviews. Eminently quotable and endlessly rewatchable, Die Hard remains the gold standard for big screen action. Adapted from a Roderick Thorp novel by first-timer Jeb Stuart and meticulously directed by set-piece maestro John McTiernan — these rare ingredients distilled into a film like no other. For the movie's 30th birthday back in 2018, we spoke to McTiernan, De Souza and Stuart to bring you the ultimate Die Hard viewing guide. Yippee-Ki-Yay, motherfuckers.

John McClane was intended to be the antidote to the "invincible" action hero archetype, but later Die Hard sequels completely missed this point. Die Hard was based on Nothing Last Forever by Roderick Thorp, a sequel to his novel The Detective. Since Frank Sinatra already played the titular role in a 1968 movie adaptation, he had to be offered Die Hard first. Since he had retired from acting by then, he swiftly turned it down, with everyone from Richard Gere to Arnold Schwarzenegger passing on Die Hard. Desperate for any kind of name, Moonlighting star Bruce Willis was cast, with the screenplay subsequently playing up the character's humor.

According to Script Apart, co-writer Steven E. de Souza intended to create a more humane action hero compared to Rambo or Commando - the latter of which the screenwriter himself penned. Compared to the types of characters played by Arnie or Sly, Willis' McClane bled,...

“Die Hard” is one of the most popular and enduring action movie franchises. The films follow the adventures of John McClane (Bruce Willis), a New York City police officer who finds himself in a series of increasingly dangerous situations.

Die Hard 5-Movie Collection Amazon Prime Video (Video on Demand)John McTiernan (Director) (Playback Language) $48.99 Check Reviews

The first “Die Hard” movie was released in 1988 and was an instant classic, spawning four sequels over the next two decades. If you’re a “Die Hard” fan, you might wonder what order you should watch the “Die Hard” films. Well, wonder no more! Here is a list of all the “Die Hard” movies in order.

All “Die Hard” Movies in Order of the Release Date Die Hard (1988) Die Hard 2 (1990) Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995) Live Free or Die Hard (2007) A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) All About the “Die Hard” Movie Franchise...

Screenwriter Jeb Stuart joins hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante to discuss a few of his favorite movies.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Die Hard (1988)

The Fugitive (1993)

Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Detective (1968) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dirty Harry (1971) – Alan Spencer’s trailer commentary, Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

Rear Window (1954) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Vertigo (1958) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Brian Trenchard-Smith’s review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

North By Northwest (1959)

The Trouble With Harry (1955)

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Wait Until Dark (1967) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Switchback (1997)

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Getaway (1972) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

The Thin Man (1934)

Another 48 Hrs (1990)

Commando (1985) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

The Long Riders (1980)

The Warriors...

Guns firing, blood flying, goons dying, and an unlikely hero quipping before bringing down the big bad. Just your standard action movie, right? Now replace the blaring guitar or thunderous orchestra with “Jingle Bell Rock,” “I’ll Be Home For Christmas,” and “The First Noel.” Wait… is this a holiday movie or Lethal Weapon?

Every year, the debate rages on. Bruce Willis, spraying machine gun fire. Hans, nonplussed, killing the world’s worst yuppie scumbag Ellis. Al, the redeemed killer cop, gunning down Karl in a surprise display of heroics. Sure, John McTiernan, Jeb Stuart, and Steven E. de Souza’s Die Hard is a certified classic of the action genre, but is it really a Christmas movie? There are arguments for and against this, but for whatever reason, the controversy has coalesced around Die Hard and forgotten the real action movie that deserves to be in the Christmas canon, and...

It’s the most wonderful time of the year – for Die Hard fans.

While there may be a little less festive cheer to go around this December, one thing remains constant during the holiday season: the debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie.

And one man who probably knows better than most is screenwriter Doug Richardson. Besides Bruce Willis himself, Richardson has had a hand in more Die Hard films than almost anyone out there, starting with the similarly festive follow-up Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

While Willis is firmly in the “no” camp on the question of whether Die Hard and its sequel are Christmas movies, Richardson disagrees.

“It is a Christmas movie,” he tells Den of Geek.

“At this time of year, the internet starts to erupt over whether it’s a Christmas movie. It’s very amusing. But I think it fits the movie and...

Movie fans are often aware of most book-to-movie adaptations but one film whose source material isn't well known is the 1988 action-thriller film Die Hard. Despite the movie being widely popular, very few people are aware that it was adapted from the 1979 Roderick Thorp novel, Nothing Lasts Forever.

Related: Die Hard: 5 Reasons It's The Greatest Action Movie Ever Made (& Its 5 Closest Contenders)

The novel is a sequel to Thorp's earlier novel titled The Detective which had also been adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra. The author wrote the sequel with the hope that it would be made into a follow up film that still had Sinatra as the lead. Unfortunately, the legendary singer and actor didn't want to reprise his role. Several years later, the novel would be adapted into Die Hard with a few changes made to the original story. Here are those major differences.

Evans (right) with Robert Shaw on the set of "Black Sunday" in 1977.

By Lee Pfeiffer

Robert Evans has passed away at age 89. The former actor-turned-studio head had a long, dramatic career that saw him appointed to run Paramount Pictures at the tender age of 36 when the studio was bleeding red ink. Under Evans' management, the studio rebounded, releasing such classics as "Chinatown", "Rosemary's Baby", "The Odd Couple", "True Grit" and, most notably, "The Godfather". Even Evan's non-blockbusters became cult classics. Among them: "Harold and Maude" and "The Italian Job". Other hits brought to the screen by Evans include "Marathon Man" and "Black Sunday". His tumultuous private life was the stuff of Hollywood lore including his seven marriages. Evans' producing career started modestly when he bought the screen rights to the crime thriller "The Detective" by Roderick Thorp. He successfully brought it to the screen in an acclaimed 1968 film starring Frank Sinatra.

Robert Evans, the legendary Paramount Pictures exec and consummate Hollywood producer behind films like Chinatown and Marathon Man, died on Saturday, October 26th, Variety reported. He was 89. A representative for Evans confirmed his death, though no cause or location was given; The New York Times reported that Evans died in Beverly Hills.

Evans’ career stretched across decades and was filled with an array of glitzy highs and brutal lows. He was best known for running and revitalizing Paramount in the late Sixties and early Seventies, overseeing hits like The Odd Couple,...

Yippie-ki-yay! Fans of the “Die Hard” movies can geek out with a new book that goes inside the entire saga with exclusive interviews with the cast and crew and and rare and unseen imagery including set photographs and concept art. Written by Variety senior producer David S. Cohen and James Mottram, “Die Hard: The Ultimate Visual History” is available on Nov. 13 from Insight Editions.

In the first chapter, screenwriter Jeb Stuart tells how a fight with his wife helped him crack the central character of the story.

Part 1: Die Hard

“Just a fly in the ointment, Hans. The monkey in the wrench. The pain in the a–.” —John McClane

Road Rage

Jeb Stuart needed a paycheck.

Things shouldn’t have been this tight. He was a writer on the rise. After five years of graduate school, he’d written a hot spec script that had landed at Columbia Pictures...

There have been a few titles banded around for the next instalment of the franchise that refuses to die (hard). The day has finally come for an official title and it’s dubbed simple ‘McClane’.

The announcement came via producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura speaking to Empire. di Bonaventura stated;

“We want you to get invested in John McClane more than ever before. I don’t know how you do Die Hard without Bruce – the idea that he’s not very significant in this movie is not accurate at all. We are gonna explore John McClane in his twenties. But just as prominent is the 60-year-old version.”

The 6th instalment in the long-running saga is a prequel-sequel, flicking back and forth between Bruce Willis’s 60-year-old McClane and his younger self in his 20’s. 20-year-old McClane will be a regular cop in 1970s New York. Bruce Willis is also set to...

Die Hard 6, which has been touted as the origin story of Bruce Willis’ wise-cracking action hero of the classic franchise, has a new title. In an interview with the UK movie magazine Empire, producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura said, “You can tell our intention by the fact that the title page we handed in says, McClane.

Deadline originally broke the story in 2015 that the next installment of the franchise was originally put on the drawing board as Die Hard: Year One at Fox with Live Free Or Die Hard helmer Len Wiseman returning.

According to the Empire report, the sequel-prequel script features Willis as a 60-year-old McClane with a younger version of McClane in his 20s.

Said di Bonaventura, “We want you to get invested in John McClane more than ever before… We are gonna explore John McClane in his twenties. But just as prominent is the 60-year-old version.” The Conjuring...

The Conjuring scribes, Chad and Carey Hayes have been picked up by 20th Century Fox to give the new Die Hard movie a rewrite.

Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard) is in place to produce and direct the next instalment in the franchise with Lorenzo di Bonaventura is also taking a producers spot.

No story details have been confirmed, but word on the street says the film looks set to be an origin story where we see a younger actor portray McClane as a regular cop in 1970s New York. Bruce Willis is also set to appear in flashback scenes alongside the heart of the story. It has bee reported that the project will have a Die Hard: Year One type of feel, in reference to Frank Miller’s comic book Batman: Year One.

Also in the news – Ian McKellen & Helen Mirren cast in Bill Condon’s adaptation of...

Books have been a great source of inspiration for the movie industry, but sometimes they sneak up on you and unless you really pay attention to the credits you’d never know a film was based on a book. As we continue our look at various book/movie adaptations, I’m taking a look at the movies you most likely didn’t know were based on books!

If you’re looking to dive more into our discussion on books and the movies, be sure to check out our articles on Bad Books That Made for Great Movies and the Top 10 Movie Franchises Based on Novels. Now...let’s get to it!

Die Hard

Yeah, I’m sure most people would have never guessed this was based off of a book. It’s easy to see why as the book is titled Nothing Lasts Forever by Roderick Thorp and doesn’t...

For as long as there have been movies, there have been movies based on books. This is a look at the best movie franchises that are either based on a book or several books.

It’s one thing to have a movie that is based on a book. It happens all the time. It’s more rare to have an entire franchise of films based on a book or set of books. Over the last two decades, it seems like we have been seeing more and more franchises emerge that are based on books. This seems to be happening for a few reasons. First, Hollywood is more than ever looking for established properties on which to base films. Book, have been and always will be one of the best established properties for a movie to be based upon. Second, if the books have a big following, chances are that the...

First of all, just in case you didn't know, yes, Die Hard is based on a 1979 book called Nothing Lasts Forever written by Roderick Thorp. I've never read the book, but thanks to CineFix we have a video essay that breaks down the differences between the film and the book.

I'm sure a lot of you gathered together with family and friends over the holiday to watch Die Hard. Some people outside of the geek community don't see it as a traditional kind of family Christmas movie, but we all know better.

The question of 'what the greatest action movie of all time is' typically boils down to two very simple, but beloved words: Die Hard. Then the conversation generally turns into slobbering over Die Hard and how great and perfect it is. But one of the more interesting Hollywood legends claims that Die Hard actually started out as a sequel to Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando. So is there any truth to it? Screenwriter Steven de Souza has finally settled it once and for all.

During a recent interview with Bristol Bad Film Club, Steven de Souza, who wrote the initial draft of Commando 2 (which ultimately never got made) was asked about the whole Die Hard legend. It turns out, that's all it ever was, because as he tells it, there is absolutely no way Commando 2 was turned into Die Hard. Here is what he had to say.

"I don't know how...

The origins of movies and the story of their continued developments are always of interest to die-hard fans, and especially to Die Hard fans. The classic action film has long been known to have a rich history as far as its source materials are concerned. It's somewhat based on the 1979 Roderick Thorp novel Nothing Lasts Forever, which is a sequel to his book The Detective. The earlier work became a movie of the same name in 1968 starring Frank Sinatra, and he was...

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The origins of movies and the story of their continued developments are always of interest to die hard fans, and especially to Die Hard fans. The classic action film has long been known to have a rich history as far as its source materials are concerned. It's somewhat based on the 1979 Roderick Thorp novel Nothing Lasts Forever, which is a sequel to his book The Detective. The earlier work became a movie of the same name in 1968 starring Frank Sinatra, and he was expected to reprise the lead role in the follow up. Years went by after Sinatra passed on the movie and it was supposedly then reworked as a sequel to Commando (though screenwriter Steven de Souza has denied this). Eventually it wound up being a new property all its own, but there are two...

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Director Gordon Douglas is one of many prolific filmmakers who seemed to fall short of auteur recognition despite considerable iconic items lodged within a vast filmography. Starting out in Hollywood as a child actor, he was directing shorts throughout the 1930s and began developing a resume of B-grade features, the most notable from this period being the 1954 sci-fi classic Them!, one of several genre items capitalizing on nuclear warfare fears. The 1960s found Douglas evolving freely with the times, churning out some racy Carroll Baker numbers (including in a biopic of Jean Harlow), the James Bond knock-off In Like Flint (1967), and a trio of Frank Sinatra vehicles. In between directing Sinatra in a pair of movies where the crooner plays Miami Pi Tony Rome, Douglas concocted something much more provocative, a seedy, lurid neo-noir titled The Detective (1968). One of several oft-referenced titles detailed in Vito Russo’s The Celluloid Closet,...

Frank Sinatra shines in a story of police corruption that tries to say it like it is -- or like it was in 1968, just before the ratings system came in.  The well-intentioned, suspenseful story is burdened by odd censor choices,  Sinatra's conservative self-image, and rudely retrograde attitudes toward gays. In a sparkling new transfer with Jerry Goldsmith's jazzy score isolated on its own track. The Detective Blu-ray Twilight Time Limited Edition 1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 114 min. / Ship Date December 8, 2015 / available through Twilight Time Movies / 29.95 Starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Ralph Meeker, Jacqueline Bisset, William Windom, Al Freeman Jr., Tony Musante, Lloyd Bochner, Robert Duvall, Horace McMahon Cinematography Joseph F. Biroc Art Direction William J. Creber, Jack Martin Smith Film Editor Robert L. Simpson Original Music Jerry Goldsmith Written by Abby Mann from a novel by Roderick Thorpe Produced by Aaron Rosenberg Directed by Gordon Douglas

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...

Given its setting during the Christmas season and with “Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!” playing as the credits rolled, Die Hard rapidly became a beloved Holiday classic. So, it’s no surprise to see 20th Century Home Entertainment kick off the Holiday gift giving season with the release of Nakatomi Plaza: Die Hard Collection. All five films in the series along with a bonus disc are packed into the base of a plastic replica of the famous locale of the first film. The structure measures 15″ high, mounted on a base which measures 7 1/8″ square and will stand proudly atop your mantle or bookshelf, a reminder of the series; enduring popularity despite the premise wearing thin with each installment.

The first, with Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis), attempting to stop terrorists led by Hans Gruber (Alan Rickman) from killing everyone at a holiday part attended by his ex-wife (Bonnie Bedelia), is riveting,...