"Welcome to the party pal!" Welcome indeed, for the tower-based entry on our list that everyone knows best. Bruce Willis was a mugging TV star before he made Die Hard in 1988. Luckily for him the lead role of John McClane had been turned down more times than a hotel bedspread. The decision made his Hollywood career. Action-meister John McTiernan put Willis in the vest, for a riotous, skyscraper-set romp that pitched New York's finest McClane in a floor by floor clash of the titans, the latter element more than ably represented by the late Alan Rickman as bearded über-villain Hans Gruber. The pace could have been much slower if the studio's approach to Frank Sinatra had been accepted. The elderly performer was asked due to contractual reasons - source novel Nothing Lasts Forever being the follow up to The Detective, whose movie adaptation gave the crooner one of his defining roles.
I am a journalist and comedian who enjoys American movies of the 70s, Amicus horror compendiums, Doctor Who, Twin Peaks, Naomi Watts and sitting down. My short fiction has been published as part of the Iris Wildthyme range from Obverse Books.
