The Hunt For ‘A Good Day To Die Hard’ John McClane Jr. Is Down To Four. Make Mine Pinkman.
The hunt for the actor who is going to portray John McClane Jr. in A Good Day To Die Hard is down to four. Let’s all get our Aaron Paul chant going.
Ever since it was revealed that the fifth installment of the Die Hard franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard, would include one new major character in the form of John McClane’s son, rumors have been circulating about who might be up for the gig. Now a new report has surfaced claiming that the studio and director John Moore are getting closer to casting the role. They’ve apparently narrowed down their options to just four actors: Aaron Paul, James Badge Dale, D.J. Cotrona, and (because no casting search is complete without him, apparently) Liam Hemsworth. More details after the jump.
The news comes courtesy of Deadline, who notes that Fox has not commented on the story. As we recently learned, A Good Day to Die Hard will see John McClane (Bruce Willis) trekking to Moscow to convince some cops to let his “apparently wayward” son John McClane Jr., out of prison. However, the circumstances surrounding Jr.’s arrest aren’t quite as simple as they seemed and the two get caught up in a terrorist plot with potentially global consequences.
Paul has drawn tons of praise for his Emmy-winning performance on Breaking Bad, but is still a relative newcomer to films. He recently wrapped the Smashed with Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who played John McClane’s daughter in the last Die Hard entry, Live Free or Die Hard), and is currently shooting Decoding Annie Parker with Samanta Morton and Helen Hunt. Unfortunately, Paul may be at a disadvantage here because of his TV work; scheduling could wind up being an issue for him.
Cotrona was recently a regular on ABC’s Detroit 1-8-7, but was written off near the end of the first season. He’s currently working on Jon Chu’s G.I. Joe 2: Retaliation, in which he’ll star as Flint.
Dale has starred on AMC’s Rubicon and HBO’s The Pacific, and will next appear on the big screen in this winter’s Shame opposite Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. He’s got a couple of interesting projects lined up for next year as well, most notably Robert Zemeckis’ Flight and Marc Forster’s World War Z.
As for Hemsworth, he’s the guy who’s been up for seemingly everything these past several months. The future Hunger Games star is already lined up for Phillip Noyce’s Timeless and The Expendables 2, among several other projects, and is in the running for one of the male leads in the Stephenie Meyer adaptation The Host. Last month, he was also announced as one of the contenders to star in David Dobkin’s Arthur & Lancelot.
Aaron Paul is fantastic in Breaking Bad, but if it can’t be him let’s give it to Dale. Dude was tremendous in Rubicon, which was canceled while Walking Mediocrity lives on. Yes, I grouse.