I’m going to be completely honest with you guys: this brand new international trailer for Live Free or Die Hard ain’t getting along with my Windows Media Player for some annoying reason. But this is a news site, and this is news for anyone who grew up in the 1980s, so here’s a completely substance-free story alerting you to this… cool sounding international trailer for the fourth installment in the Die Hard franchise (which, for me, has been a sad case of diminishing returns).
Oh, never mind! The official U.S. theatrical trailer just went up as I was writing this story. It’s right here. And it’s Harrier-ific! Remember how we loved the first Die Hard because it was grounded in a believable world and had a sympathetically human protagonist who outsmarted terrorists while performing insane, but completely plausible stunts in order to save his estranged wife? It would suck if they just mindlessly trashed what made that movie special.
Live Free or Die Hard (still not down with that title) is directed by Len Wiseman, and it’s his first trip outside of his depressingly popular Underworld franchise, which thus far has given him a) a rash of negative reviews, b) the clout to direct a $100 million-plus summer tentpole for Fox and c) the opportunity to probe deep inside Kate Beckinsale’s acting process. The script, by Mark Bomback and Doug Richardson (who was one of fifty-eight WGA members to work on Simpson/Bruckheimer’s Bad Boys), concerns bad guy Timothy Olyphant’s efforts to shut down the United States’ infrastructure (including all utilities and the nation’s entire defense network). How McClane figures into this doesn’t really matter; he’ll get knocked around plenty, utter "Yippee Ki Yay, Motherfucker" and make 20th Century Fox a good $400 million worldwide. They’ll probably get my $11.
We’ll all get our chance to line Rupert Murdoch’s empty pockets beginning June 29th.