‘Armageddon‘, the iconic 1998 disaster movie, had everything to succeed: a protagonist as famous as Bruce Willisa cast with rising stars and a director, Michael Baywhich had just completed two successful blockbusters such as ‘Bad Boys‘ and ‘The rock‘; so it was. Not in vain, it was the highest-grossing film of its year with more than 550 million dollars for a budget of 140 million and it was nominated for four Oscars, including best song and best special effects. However, Bruce Willis – beyond winning the Razzie Award for Worst Actor for his role in said film – it does not seem that he was too happy with his director, going so far as to assure that “I will never work with him again”.
Bruce Willis vs. Michael Bay and Joel Silver
Thus, in 2007, a few months after the premiere of ‘The jungle 4.0‘, they asked Bruce Willis for a possible new installment of the saga ‘Die Hard‘ in charge of Michael Bay, given the criticism of the fourth part for its marked turn to family cinema. “It would have ruined ‘The Jungle 4.0’. Few people will work with him now and I know I will never work with him again. again,” Bruce Willis said about Michael Bay after working with him on ‘Armageddon’ a few years earlier.
And he also dedicated a few words to the producer Joel Silverwith whom he had worked on the first two installments of the saga ‘Die Hard’ and ‘The Last Boy Scout’: “Fuck Joel Silver. You don’t understand my relationship with him. We are cordial when we meet, but we have not worked together again since ‘The Last Boy Scout,’” Willis acknowledged.
The reaction of Michael Bay He did not wait for such surprising statements, showing his disbelief at your colleague’s opinion by profession in Hollywood, adding that he even received the proposal from Willis’s entourage to direct the fourth part of ‘Die Hard’: “It’s hard to believe that it’s really Bruce who says those things on AICN. I loved working with Bruce.. “He gave me a big hug a month ago at the GM party and we talked for 20 minutes,” Bay explained.
“We even talked about working together again! I mean it would be sad if he felt that way since he is someone who doesn’t hide his feelings, I say sad because he wouldn’t be man enough to say it to my face. But it’s really sad that such an important actor has to hide in a small conversation section. So I don’t really believe this story. I also find it totally strange that my agents at William Morris got the call from Bruce’s people to ask if I would like to direct ‘The Jungle 4.0’but I was already with ‘Transformers’”, concludes the filmmaker.
