Where to watch Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995)

Trivia & production notes

• The script was originally developed as a standalone film called Simon Says, positioned as a vehicle for Brandon Lee before his death during The Crow production.
• An early Die Hard 3 script titled Troubleshooter, which featured McClane fighting terrorists on a Caribbean cruise ship, was rejected for being too similar to Under Siege and was later reworked into Speed 2: Cruise Control.
• The Simon Says script was purchased by Warner Bros., rewritten as a Lethal Weapon sequel, then put in turnaround before 20th Century Fox acquired it and adapted it as a Die Hard film.
• Samuel L. Jackson was cast as Zeus Carver after producer Andy Vajna saw his performance in Pulp Fiction at the Cannes Film Festival and offered him the role on the spot.
• Laurence Fishburne turned down the role of Jules Winnfield in Pulp Fiction because his representatives advised him to only take leading roles to avoid being typecast as a supporting actor, which indirectly led to Samuel L. Jackson getting cast in Die Hard with a Vengeance.
• Laurence Fishburne filed a lawsuit against producer Andy Vajna's company Cinergi for reneging on a verbal agreement for the Zeus Carver role, settling before trial for $750,000 plus a guarantee that Cinergi would option a screenplay he wrote.
• Director John McTiernan's original ending involved the bomb-laden suitcase being loaded onto the villains' escape plane, exploding after Simon opens it in mid-air while McClane and Zeus float safely in the ocean below.
• Michael Kamen, who scored the first two Die Hard films, returned to compose the score for the third film and incorporated the Civil War-era song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" into his music.
• Despite the Oklahoma City bombing occurring the previous month, the film was released as scheduled on May 19, 1995, without delay despite concerns about its portrayal of bomb threats and terrorism.
• Die Hard with a Vengeance was the first film in the series not set during Christmas, instead taking place in late summer.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Die Hard with a Vengeance, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.