'Die Hard 5' gets two new villains
Production is about to begin on the fifth installment in the Die Hard franchise, bearing the punny title . 聽聽 will reprise his career-defining role as loose cannon, Irish-American cop John McClane 鈥� who鈥檚 really聽a fish out of water this time around, as he ends up battling baddies overseas in Russia while also reuniting with his son Jack (鈥�聽Jai Courtney).
While there were rumors circulating a year ago that a member of the Gruber clan could be featured as , that was long before any official plot details had been announced. Judging by today鈥檚 casting update 鈥� which concerns what are believed to be the two primary villain roles in the movie 鈥� McClane and Son will be facing much more generic foes on their crazy trip overseas.
The most recent Good Day to Die Hard script draft penned by Skip Woods (Swordfish, Hitman) reportedly sees McClane travel to Moscow in order to get his trouble-making son out of prison. However, it turns out John and Jack are both being used as pawns in a global terrorist scheme 鈥� thus, forcing the estranged duo to (as puts it) 鈥渢eam up to keep each other alive and protect the world from imminent disaster.鈥�
Parts for two sinister Russian characters named Komorov and Irina -聽who are almost certainly involved with the aforementioned terrorist plot in Good Day to Die Hard 鈥� have now been filled. The former role will be occupied by award-winning German actor Sebastian Koch (The Lives of Others, ), while Komorov鈥檚 villainous female counterpart will be bought to life by Russian model-turned-actress Yulia Snigir.
As indicated before,聽Koch and Snigir鈥檚 parts in Die Hard 5 read as being very聽basic villain archetypes, ie. a two-dimensional baddie and his lovely assistant,聽respectively. Combine that with John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines, ) sitting in the director鈥檚 chair and it鈥檚 all the more apparent:聽A Good Day to Die Hard could easily end up feeling like a pretty聽underwhelming addition to the franchise.
On the other hand: if聽Willis and Courtney鈥檚 onscreen chemistry proves as entertaining as that between聽Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in Die Hard: With a Vengeance, that could help to elevate the series鈥� fifth chapter above the level of being a throwaway action movie followup. Such a turn of events would also help ensure that we get to see Willis saddle up as McClane for a sixth (and, ) time.
Sandy Schaefer blogs at .
