John McClain in the performance of Bruce Willis from the Die Hard series of films (Die Hard) has already become almost a symbol of the savior of the world. But it is interesting that this character was originally supposed to have a completely different name and the famous Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood and Arnold Schwarzenegger should have played it at different times.
It all began back in 1968, when Gordon Douglas's film "The Detective" was released. In this crime drama, Frank Sinatra played a very old policeman, Joe Leland, who challenged the very corrupt New York police. The film, based on the novel of the same name by Roderick Thorpe, was very popular in those years (one of the leaders of the rental), and Fox, wanting to "strike while the iron is hot," ordered Thorpe to continue.
Frank Sinatra in The Detective, 1968 © Arcola Pictures
The writer, impressed by the recently read Glass Hell book about a fire in a skyscraper (which would later serve as the basis for the movie Hell in the Sky), decided to continue to push Leland with the terrorists who captured the skyscraper where his daughter worked.
But Sinatra, realizing that this film will be more of a fighter than he refused to play the role of detective, he didn’t want to run around the skyscraper with a gun. As a result, the writer finished the text only by 1979, and published it as the novel "Nothing lasts forever." Sinatra (under the terms of the contract) reaffirmed that he was not going to participate in this project, which was called “Nothing,” and the studio began to look for a new actor for the main role. The choice eventually fell on the appropriate age of Clint Eastwood. Moreover, Eastwood acquired the rights to the film version. But for some reason I didn’t issue them and, as a result, the project stalled again
Clint Eastwood in the film "Escape from Alcatraz", 1979 © Paramount Pictures
By the mid-80s, producer Joel Silver, who had produced Commando by that time, connected to it. He saw similar details in the two projects (a cool retired officer and daughter in trouble) and decided to make him a sequel to a popular action movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger. But there was a mismatch again - Iron Arnie didn’t like the sequels very much (the only sequel in which he had participated by that time, Konan the Destroyer, failed miserably at the box office). Moreover, according to the script, he needed to confront German terrorists, which, with his pronounced South German accent, seemed ridiculous to him.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Alyssa Milano on the set of "Commando", 1985 © 20th Century Fox Film Corporation, Silver Pictures
The network also came across information that between Eastwood and Schwarzenegger, the role was offered to Robert de Niro, but I did not find evidence of this. Well, after Arnie, this role was attempted to be captured by almost all the stars of Hollywood who ever lit up with a weapon in the frame. This list is huge, it has Sylvester Stallone, Richard Gere, Harrison Ford, and Burt Reynolds. Here are just one of them are not interested in the project. They all considered the project second-rate and professionally uninteresting.
By this time, realizing that no one remembers the movie "Detective" and no one knows Joe Leland, the project was made autonomous, unrelated to its prehistory. He was renamed "Die Hard", and the main character received a new name - John McClain. The matter remained for a trifle, to find an actor willing to embody this role on the screen. And only then decided to make a bet on the "dark horse." The actor agreed to the role, which the producers did not consider even in the third stage, and which the audience perceived mainly as a comedian - Bruce Willis. He was known to a greater extent as an actor of the series “Detective Agency“ Moonlight. ”But since he could not find a more convincing“ macho ”, they agreed with Willis at the studio. And this, quite unexpectedly, turned out to be a top ten
Bruce Willis in the movie "Die Hard", 1988 © 20th Century Fox
Sources ... ] Sources
Used footage from feature films
"Die Hard", dir. John McTiernan, 1988
"Detective", dir. Gordon Douglas, 1968
"Escape from Alcatraz", dir. Don Siegel, 1979
"Commando", dir. Mark L. Leicester, 1985
The article is based on materials .
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