Exclusive: John Moore On Die Hard 5

John Moore is director of the upcoming fifth** Die Hard** movie, A Good Day To Die Hard, and in advance of its release date early next year, he spoke with Empire about how the film is going in our latest, Hobbit-filled issue.

The plot of the fivequel - if you're comfortable using the term - sees Bruce Willis' John McClane facing off against angry Russian foes after his son, Jack (newcomer Jai Courtney), gets himself into some "serious international trouble" in Moscow.

Many fans of the franchise will be concerned about the idea of another sequel, but Moore - who's previously directed Max Payne and the 2006 remake of The Omen - is aware of the anxious question mark hanging over the film.

What's more, he's also keen to downplay idea that the fifth Die Hard could be a light-hearted romp - this is a Die Hard movie, pure and simple. In other words, no glib jokes then? No "How can the same shit happen to the same guy five times..." lines?

"No, because that’s preposterous! I don’t know whether it’s post-financial crash or whatever, but I don’t think people are in the mood for that bollocks anymore. People are well savvy to the cynical reheating of any product, any franchise. Any shit won’t do. The bar’s a bit higher."

But what about the fish-out-of-water element, with McClane in Moscow?

"There are a couple of great gags and a couple of great McClanisms. It’s not like he this idiot, bumbling around Moscow making ‘America won the Cold War’ jokes. It’s not Carry On Die Hard, I can assure you…"

And what about the scale of the movie? So far, each Die Hard has been bigger than the one before…

"The scope along goes from New York to Moscow. It’s very, very international. There’s a car chase through Moscow that’s taking us 78 days to shoot. So… yeah. That should answer your question!"

For more details on A Good Day To Die Hard from Moore, be sure to get your hands on a copy of the latest issue of Empire, where he tells us more about what expect from the new bad guy (Sebastian Koch) as well as the indomitable McClane himself.

The new issue is on newsstands today, or in the Apple store for those of you after the iPad edition - both original UK flavour and new US edition. **A Good Day To Die Hard **is set for a February 14, 2013 release date.