Filed under: Action & Adventure, Celebrities and Controversy, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels
I'm not sure how many of you have been following the Bruce Willis chat over on AICN. Scott mapped the whole thing out for us yesterday; initially, it all started when Vern ranted about the PG-13 rating that was given to Live Free or Die Hard. Eventually, some dude named Walter B. showed up in their talkback section alluding to the fact that he was indeed Willis. After about a day or so of back and forth (keep in mind no one from AICN was able to confirm that it was him), Walter B. posted his iChat name and was willing to prove his identity. Needless to say, some dude connected up with him, managed to snag some photos and a lot of us were amazed to find out that, yes, Bruce Willis had been leaving comments in the talkback section on AICN at 4am for two days straight. And God Bless the guy!
However, during one such comment, Bruce mildly bashed Michael Bay (as you know, the two worked together on Armageddon). Here's just a brief taste of what Willis said about Bay and his experience working on Armageddon: "It was a great crew, but a screaming Director does not make for a pleasant set experience. But look, we were all big boys, and we got thru it. A little to MTV-camera cutty for my taste, but the shots of meteors crashing into the WTC was pretty prescient." And yes, that's Bruce's bad spelling and grammar, not mine. Now, for those who aren't aware, Michael Bay is like the Hollywood version of that kid from high school who, if you accidentally glanced in his direction, would immediately get in your face and go, "What are you looking at? You got a problem?" Yeah, that kid. Thus, it didn't take long for the director to issue a response through his own blog (which you can read in its entirety here).
Here's a sampling of the Bay response in all of its schoolyard bully glory: "I mean it would be sad if he felt this way - he's never one to hide his feelings - I say sad, in that he wouldn't be man enough to say it to my face. But truly sad that such a big time actor would have to hide on a little talk back section." I can almost here the AICN talkbackers chanting "Fight! Fight! Fight!" Bay also admits that Bruce's people called him awhile back to see if he'd be interested in directing Die Hard 4, but he couldn't take the gig because of Transformers. Therefore, he cannot understand why Willis would throw out the cheap shots. Personally, I think the entire thing is hysterical -- Willis said some pretty harsh things (he reminded me of the drunken friend who's too stupid to just shut the hell up), and I'll be curious to see if there's an official apology issued to either Joel Silver or to the producers of Perfect Stranger (a film in which he says he was "disappointed" with). Yet, one thing Willis (aka Walter B.) is sure about -- to a point where he kept saying it over and over -- is that Live Free or Die Hard is going to rock, regardless of its PG-13 rating. And boy, do I hope he's right.
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