When fratboy director Len Wiseman got the nod for the fourth Die Hard movie, many of us assumed that it was because John McTiernan was up to his neck in legal troubles as part of the Pelicano case, where he had been lying to the FBI (oops!). It turns out that might not be the case, as a new McTiernan project, Deadly Exchange (a name worthy of a DTV release if ever there has been one), has been announced, leading us to believe Fox just didn’t go to the guy who made the best Die Hards and that McTiernan is feeling pretty good about his odds at escaping the pokey.
Deadly Exchange actually sounds like it could be the plot of Die Hard 4 anyway – a terrorist comes to America to get revenge on the federal agent who killed his terrorist parents a decade ago. As part of his plan, he seduces the agent’s daughter (almost all of my revenge plans center around nailing women as well. Sadly it’s usually my victim’s grandmother), but it turns out that he develops real feelings for her. The young terrorist kidnaps the daughter and goes on the run; the fed must stop a massive attack that will result in mass casualties and the terrorist must decide where his heart lies when his terror masters order him to kill the girl. Why do I have the feeling that this synopsis brought us right to the last reel of the film?
The exciting thing about Deadly Exchange is that the ending hasn’t been written – McTiernan is waiting to see what happens in his case. If he gets prison time, the feds fail, and everybody dies. Takes that, G-Men!