Die Hard has had a weird history for a mega budget franchise. As noted last week, the script for the first film was actually written as a sequel for Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando. It wouldn't be the last time that a Die Hard film would use a script not originally meant for the franchise.
In the early 1990's, Brandon Lee was becoming a huge star. Fox had signed him to a gigantic contract and had even procured a script for his first big budget vehicle- Simon Says. Sadly, Brandon would pass away before the film started production. Meanwhile, Warner Brothers was looking for a script it could refashion into a Lethal Weapon sequel. It offered Fox a large sum of money to buy the script. Fox refused.
The studio had different plans for the script. They needed to start production on another Die Hard film or payout a large sum of money to Bruce Willis as a penalty. Soon Simon Says would become Die Hard: With A Vengeance.
