[UPDATED: Deadline is reporting that Noam Murro has been hired by Fox to direct. Read more below...]

With four films and over twenty years of history, the Die Hard franchise is certainly living up to its name. Each film has been an over-the-top, fun-filled thrill ride, which made a bad-ass legend out of Bruce Willis and his character John McClane.

While some viewers thought the fourth installment Live Free or Die Hard was a failure, we gave it a hearty 4-star review for its action-packed fun and excitement.  Even though we really liked the film, it never really made sense for Fox to make a Die Hard 5 (like THAT’s ever stopped a studio before) but this time last year Bruce Willis said the filming could begin as early as 2011.

Recently, Willis said that writer Skip Woods (X-Men Origins: Wolverine) had turned in a draft of the Die Hard 5 script. However, Vulture has news that Fox was unhappy with the most recent draft and has sent Woods back to work revising the whole thing from the beginning. Meanwhile, Bruce Willis is taking this opportunity to interview potential directors for Die Hard 5 and right now upcoming director Jorge Daniel Espinosa is the frontrunner.

The Die Hard quadrilogy has had three directors behind the lens – John McTiernan (Die Hard, Die Hard: With a Vengeance), Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) and Len Wiseman (Live Free or Die Hard). If Willis truly wants Espinosa for his next film he’ll have to wait, as the up-and-coming young director’s current film, Safe House – starring Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds – begins filming later this month.

As Willis and Fox move forward with Die Hard 5, and as Willis begins his interviewing process, inevitably more names for potential directors will surface.  So far we know that Die Hard 5 and 6 will be the last hurrah for Officer John McClane, and that another member of the Gruber family could be the main villain.

**UPDATE **

Deadline is now reporting conflicting information that Fox has already hired Noam Murro to fill the job of director for Die Hard 5 - though this decision makes very little sense. While Espinosa has critically acclaimed foreign action/drama films like The Fighter (not the recent Mark Wahlberg film) and Easy Money, Murro only has a HBO TV film and the 2008 Sarah Jessica Parker romance-comedy Smart People on his resume. Something doesn't seem right with the news about Murro, so either NY Magazine or Deadline have it wrong. Both sites are running stories they received from "inside sources" so until an official press release comes from Fox you should probably keep all of this in the rumor bin.

If Fox and friends ever get their act regarding Die Hard 5, who else would you like to see rejoin the Die Hard franchise – Sergeant Al Powell (Reginald VelJohnson), Captain Carmine Lorenzo (Dennis Franz) or Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson)?

Die Hard 5 currently has no release date.

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Source: Vulture, Deadline