Die Hard Director Had 1 Demand to Make Bruce Willis’ Greatest Christmas Movie After Turning it Down Many Times

“If you let me figure out how to make it fun”: Die Hard Director Had 1 Demand to Make Bruce Willis’ Greatest Christmas Movie After Turning it Down Many Times

John McTiernan had one condition to direct the 1988 action thriller Die Hard.

While Bruce Willis’ 1988 classic Die Hard has become one of the greatest movies and a Christmas favorite over the years, it was not expected to be as big as it went on to be. The expectations were so low that many Hollywood stars like Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone turned down the offer to play John McClane. The same was the case with filmmakers. After Joel Silver joined the project as a producer, he approached renowned filmmakers like Paul Verhoeven.

Bruce Willis in a still from Die Hard

After facing a rejection from the RoboCop director, Silver approached John McTiernan, who he worked with on the 1987 film Predator. But he was also not too keen to direct the movie. However, after the producer’s relentless efforts, he put forth one condition to work on it.

John McTiernan’s One Condition to Direct Die Hard

As Die Hard went into development, Joel Silver started looking for a director to bring the story to life. And after facing a rejection from the Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, he approached the Predator director John McTiernan with the offer to direct the movie.

John McTiernan on the set of Predator

He also chose to turn down the offer, not once but multiple times. However, in the filmmaker’s own words, “[Joel Silver] was a difficult man,” who continued to approach him with the offer. But McTiernan had one argument about the story. He did not want to direct a “terrorist movie.”

The filmmaker believed that the story had no fun in it and wanted to alter the script accordingly. As per All the Right Movies, he told Joel Silver, “If you let me figure out how to make this fun. I’ll do it.” And in order to do that, he wanted to replace terrorists with robbers.

A still from Die Hard

“Nobody likes terrorists. Everybody likes robbers, they’re fun. You can enjoy it,” McTiernan argued in the Netflix documentary The Movies That Made Us. However, the changes kept on coming and it eventually resulted in Jeb Stuart, who worked on the initial draft of the movie, getting fired.

Jeb Stuart Was Replaced by Steven de Souza

Screenwriter Jeb Stuart was initially hired to adapt Roderick Thorp’s 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever into a movie. He has shared that an argument with his wife inspired the plot where Bruce Willis’ John McClane goes to Los Angeles to make up with his wife, Holly.

Bruce Willis in Die Hard

However, as John McTiernan joined the movie, he wanted to add some elements to make the movie fun. And the makers did not find that in Stuart’s initial draft and later replaced him with Steven de Souza, who had worked on movies like Commando and 48 Hours.

Stuart shared that he was devastated by the firing. The Netflix documentary shared that de Souza was brought in to add a bit of humor to the script. While he started working on the rewrites at a convenient pace, the filming for Die Hard started with 35 pages.

A still from Die Hard

While it was not the only challenge, the movie was finally released and received a positive response at the box office. Die Hard has since become not only one of the greatest films of all time but has also become one of the favorites during the Christmas season.

Die Hard is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.