The word was that the next Die Hard movie was going to be a very different sort of movie, and that seems to have been reinforced by the recent hiring of the screenwriters. The new movie is supposed to be an "origin story" sort of movie, that includes both the return of Bruce Willis and the casting of a new actor to play a younger John McClane. That by itself makes the new film a very different animal, but now the studio has hired Chad and Carey Hayes, the twin brother writing team behind The Conjuring movies, to pen the script.
It's an interesting decision considering that horror has been the stock in trade for the pair for the better part of the last decade. In addition to The Conjuring movies, the Hayes brothers wrote the House of Wax remake as well as films like The Reaping and The Crucifixion. The pair was previously attached to write a pair of non-horror movies with the two planned sequel's to Dwayne Johnson's Journey movie, but based on recent comments by Johnson himself, those projects are either dead, or, at the very least, looking for a new star.
One certainly wonders if the decision to bring in writers known for horror is part of the plan for the new Die Hard movie. While we would never expect a Die Hard prequel to be a straight horror movie, perhaps the plan is to set the story apart by making it a darker tale. The entire concept of a Die Hard prequel is a bit strange, to begin with, since the entire premise of the original film is that John McClane is in over his head and has never experienced anything like that before. If the prequel were a straight action movie with a similar theme, it would seem to conflict with the other installments, so maybe this movie is looking to set itself apart in more ways than one.
According to The Tracking Board, the pair is rewriting the script, which implies that there was one already, but that it wasn't quite what they were looking for. Bruce Willis made recent comments that he was going to be checking out the script, so perhaps he took issue with it. While the movie is being described as a prequel, it seems the plan is for the story to shift between two time periods, allowing Bruce Willis to appear as well as having a new actor play a younger John McClane. It's unclear if Chad and Carey Hayes are starting from scratch or making changes to the existing version of the story.
Either way, it seems clear that a new Die Hard movie is on the horizon, even if we're not quite sure what it's going to look like.
