While he recently announced the end of his career for health reasons, did you know that Bruce Willis had almost been forced to play in three Disney productions at the end of the 90s?
We are at the end of the 90s. Already known worldwide, in particular thanks to the very popular saga Die Hard or Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino, Bruce Willis is on the set of his new film: a romantic comedy entitled Broadway Brawler and directed by director Lee Grant.
For the occasion, the actor gives the reply to Maura Tierney (who will then play in the Emergency series), and plays a retired professional hockey player. Described as an heir to Jerry Maguire, the film will never see the light of day.
The cause of its cancellation three weeks after the start of filming: significant tensions between certain members of the team and Bruce Willis, who says he is unhappy with their work.
After a change of director, which notably caused the ousting of Lee Grant, the production ended up throwing in the towel and canceling the project. But rather than suing Bruce Willis to compensate for a deadweight loss of 17 million dollars, thanks to the assistance of producer Joe Roth, Disney prefers to bet on other collaborations with the star, who therefore agrees to play in three new films for a salary lower than that which he usually receives.
Touchstone Pictures
A strategy that pays off for everyone, since it begins with Armageddon by Michael Bay (533 million dollars worldwide) and continues with Sixth Sense by M. Night Shyamalan (672 million). According to an article by EspinoffBruce Willis was therefore able to receive a substantial share of the revenue from these two planetary successes, in addition to his base salary.
And even if his third collaboration with Disney – the family comedy Dirty kid – turns out to be much less successful (110 million), the operation nevertheless allows the actor and the studios to forget the sad story of Broadway Brawler. An episode from which the other members of the team – and in particular the director Lee Grant – unfortunately had a lot more trouble recovering.
(Re)discover the trailer for “Sixth Sense”…