Just yesterday we learned that Noam Murro had dropped out of the director's chair due to his responsibilties helming 300: Battle of Artemisia. Fox reportedly had the more suitable John Moore(Behind Enemy Lines
) as their lead choice, with the job basically his to "take or leave". Something must've changed between yesterday and today, as now their shortlist includes Justin Lin, Joe Cornish, and Nicolas Winding Refn.I guess it's still possible the job is Moore's to lose, but why would that be the case with these other proven, much hotter filmmakers a possibility? Lin has been on fire lately as the head of the Fast and the Furious
franchise. The latest, Fast Five
, was the highest grossing film of 2011 for no short amount of time, and is the franchise's most profitable by far. There's talk he may also be behind Terminator 5 if it ever gets off the ground. Joe Cornish has all types of festival buzz over this summer's alien invasion film, Attack the Block(check out a screening here!). Winding Refn has established himself as the next indie auteur ready to make a mainstream splash with the Ryan Gosling starring Drive, and then later on with a Logan's Run
remake(also with Gosling). Any of these three would be a much more popular choice than Moore,who hasn't had a film since 2008's Max Payne
, and hasn't had a good one since 2006's The Omen
. My pick would be for Cornish to take it on, mainly because he's a new voice and if there's anything Die Hard needs it's a fresh perspective. Plus what he did in Attack the Block isn't all that different(except for the brightly fanged aliens) than the situation most Die Hard movies set up. Winding Refn is probably far too busy. Lin is the likely choice, just because he seems the most open to jumping into the middle of aging franchises.Die Hard 5 will see John McClain in Russia teaming up with his son to take on a bunch of local criminals. Maybe we'll get lucky and nobody will want the job, then we can finally say "Dos vadanya" once and for all.
