No Woody For Bruce
Tuesday, August 25, 2015 at 8:23AM 
So...21 hours or so ago pics from the set of Woody Allen's latest Untitled 2016) dropped featuring Bruce Willis and Jesse Eisenberg and an unnamed actor (maybe Paul Schackman?) filming a scene. About 10 hours after that word broke that Bruce Willis is no longer with the film . The parties involved are citing schedule conflicts with his upcoming Broadway run in Misery (in the James Caan role of course).
I'm sorry but I don't believe this for one hot second. Woody Allen's films run on very predetermined schedules since he does the same thing every year like clockwork (whether or not the script is in good shape as we see from his highly uneven work). And Bruce Willis's Broadway commitment was a thing known long ago. What actually happened? Makes you wonder.
Reader Comments (15)
Allen should get Harrison Ford to replace him.
Woody has been known to replace actors halfway through shooting when he just doesn't think they work in various roles. Didn't he replace someone with Sam Waterston in September?
What a bummer. Bruce Willis is great. I hope it is not a medical issue. If not, My best bet is Woody never wanted to hire him to begin with but gave in to the studio only to later change his mind.
Wasn't it Mira Sorvino who said there is a clause in your contract where you can be fired at any time?
Curios why Willis was either fired or left of his own freewill? Maybe the movie will improve due to this little bit of chaos.
Suzanne -- he replaced several members of September's cast and reshot big portions of it. I doubt he has that much free reign in current production budgets now though. But yeah, he's done it before.
Anonny -- i love Bruce Willis, too. Needs a great director to really showcase him properly to get a career achievement kind of retro respect.
My boss worked on a movie with Bruce Willis a few years ago, and said Willis has absolutely no regard for anyone else's schedule and shows up whenever he feels like it. Since it seems Allen's sets value expedience, my bet is he was fired.
From the top of my head:
Elaine Stritch replaced Maureen O'Sullivan
Juliette Lewis replaced Emily Lloyd
Jeff Daniels replaced Michael Keaton
Sam Waterston replaced Sam Shepard who replaced Christopher Walken
Reminds me of the letter he once wrote Elaine Stritch telling her not to be difficult
I have no time for Bruce Willis a terrible lazy actor.
MARK: I don't buy that. Three pretty darn iconic turns (John McClane, Butch Coolidge, Malcolm Crowe) who feel very different from one another and a few more "very good but not 'iconic' " turns in 12 Monkeys, Unbreakable and Looper. Yes, it's also pretty hard to excuse his taste a lot of the time (Color of Night? North? The Whole Ten Yards? Doing Die Hard 4, 5 and (kill me now) 6 instead of letting the franchise end with dignity?), but he SHOULD be better used and have more of an ability to say "no."
I'm guessing Bruce played the star on set a couple of times, Woody thought "I'll have none of that, especially at my age" and fired him. And if my guess is right, that's great news. Actors should be actors on set and stars on the red carpet and on the covers of magazines.
This goes back to the production of Bonfire of the Vanities where people said he was a prick to work with as he made things already more difficult on set.
Bruce Willis is a more talented actor then most give him credit. But for the last few years, he kept doing the same of tired action movies instead of exploring new oppurtunities a mature actor like himself should be doing. for reference, he is the same age as Bill Paxton, Billy bob Thornton, Jeff Daniels, and Kevin Costner. All those actors have at least gone on to cricial acclaim in tv series, winning awards and nomiations. Coster keeps on acting steadily. Why can't Willis get roles like this? His attempt at Broadway and this Allen project seemed like steps in the right direction and it woudl be a shame if something like diva behavior (not saying that is what happened, or if only Willis displayed it) ruined that attempt to expend as an actor.