Bruce Willis Still Getting Offered A Lot of Action Roles

[Brian Damage]

Action stars may lose their currency as they move into their 50s. But Bruce Willis keeps on raking in the offers.

The star, who turned 54 last month, has been in discussions to shoot and fight his way through three action pics — a thriller for NuImage/Millenium titled “Inventory,” the CIA tale “Red” for Summit and the mob biopic “Scarpa” for Morgan Creek.

In “Inventory,” Willis, who is in negotiations for the role, would play a detective on the trail of a murderer.

In “Red,” Willis would portray a former black-ops agent who has gone into retirement but is forced back into action when a high-tech assassin comes a-callin’ to threaten him and his girlfriend. Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Mark Vahradian are producing, and Erich and Jon Hoeber are writing the screenplay, which is based on the WildStorm/DC Comic. (DC’s Gregory Noveck is exec producing.)

The “Twilight” studio has made an offer on “Red,” and Willis’ camp has counteroffered, though those with knowledge of the talks say negotiations could yet break off without the sides reaching a deal. Producers are now out to directors, with Richard Donner said to be among the names on the shortlist. Donner and Willis, of course, collaborated on the 2006 cop drama “16 Blocks.”

The CAA-repped Willis has also been weighing an offer from Morgan Creek to play the title character in “Scarpa,” a mob biopic directed by "Tears of the Sun" helmer Antoine Fuqua about Greg Scarpa, an FBI informant who worked deeply undercover in New York’s Columbo family, though the odds are growing that Willis won't do that pic.

After making his name as an action star through most of the 1990s with the “Die Hard” movies and pics like “Armageddon” and “Mercury Rising,” Willis briefly took on less action-oriented parts in such films as “The Sixth Sense,” “The Story of Us” and “The Kid” before returning to his trademark roles. He revived his John McClane character in “Live Free or Die Hard” in 2007.

Willis is attached to or is starring in a host of other action movies — the buddy action-comedy tentatively titled “A Couple of Dicks” at Warners, likely to be his next movie, and Lionsgate’s adaptation of the video game title “Kane & Lynch.” He next toplines the Touchstone sci-fi actioner “Surrogates.”

Even brand-name actors have had trouble keeping action roles going once they hit the midcentury mark. But a select group of older icons like Harrison Ford and Sylvester Stallone have found multiple jobs in action movies even into their 50s and even their 60s. Looks like Willis will be moonlighting that way too.

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[comedyfreak]

Good to hear if anyone can pull it off Willis can, the movies sound interesting.