Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
On the heels of the theatrical and VOD debut of Vice last Friday, Bruce Willis is re-teaming with the producers of that sci-fi thriller for another movie called Extraction. This one will similarly shoot in Alabama and similarly sounds like another cheap genre flick suited for a direct-to-video release coupled by good box office overseas. According to Deadline, Willis will play a CIA agent who is kidnapped and has to be rescued by his son, who is also a CIA agent, when the government passes on mounting a mission themselves. Is it just a role-reversed remake of A Good Day to Die Hard? Should they just cast Jai Courtney as the younger spy and some foreign markets can actually retitle it A Good Day to Die Hard 2 on their DVD covers?
Extraction will be directed by Steven C. Miller, helmer of the 2012 Silent Night, Deadly Night remake, and is written by someone named Umair Aleem, who has no IMDb profile. The producers, Randall Emmett and George Furla, have worked with Willis on a number of movies, most of them in the recent lower-profile phase of the actor’s career. Past collaborations you may or may not have heard of include last year’s The Prince, 2012’s Fire With Fire, 2011’s Setup and, most notable, 2006’s 16 Blocks. Emmett and Furla have been involved with a lot of vehicles for past-their-prime action stars, such as Escape Plan, Rambo and Steven Seagal’s Submerged, plus a whole lot of movies starring 50 Cent, but they’re also behind Martin Scorsese’s next film, Silence.
This news is a reminder that I haven’t been excited by much that Willis has done in a long time, even though his work in Moonrise Kingdom and Looper proved for a short two months back in 2012 that there’s still an interesting actor in there beyond his called-in appearances in G.I. Joe, Red, Expendables and Die Hard sequels coupled by his consistent employment in these smaller B movies that barely register when they hit cinemas (look at how few showtimes Vice has at any one of the AMC multiplexes it’s currently booked in, and this is its opening week). Hopefully another quality filmmaker like Wes Anderson and Rian Johnson can come along and extract him from the rut he’s in (from our perspective at least) for good.
Related Topics: Bruce Willis
