Die Hard at the White House: how to do a remake without seeming like one?

In its genre, the action film with Gerard Butler is particularly effective. And it fully embraces its similarities with one of its obvious models: Crystal Trap.

Die Hard at the White House: it is undoubtedly in these immediately explicit terms that the screenwriters Katrin Benedikt And Creighton Rothenberger had to summarize their script The White House fall to their producers… A blockbuster also worn by Angela Bassett, Ashley Judd, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman, to see again this evening on W9.

The film ofAntoine Fuqua (Training Day), released in spring 2013 at the cinema, place Gerard Butler in the shoes of a retired Special Forces officer assigned to security at the American presidential palace. When terrorists attack the White House, circumstances mean that Banning (that’s the hero’s name) finds himself alone having to save the President and confront the bad guys within four walls…

In short, it is a variation of the archetypal crystal trapatmosphere ofvintage actioner understood. If the cult film of John McTiernan doesn’t come from nowhereits success meant that its recipe (a single guy faces bad guys in a closed place) became an archetype: we are now talking about a film “à la Die hard”.

But the seminal crystal trap is obviously not alone in this case: it is enough to change the framework of a good story to give a completely different film while the substance remains the same. A good story lasts forever. The proof in four films, just below the trailer for The Fall of the White House.

Mathieu Kassovitz will take over from Gerard Butler in The Fall of Paris

Star Wars : The Hidden Fortress in the space

1958, original recipe: In feudal Japan, two peasants discover the treasure of the Akizuki clan. As they try to survive, they are captured by General Rokurota (Toshiro Mifune), who must escort Princess Yuki (heir to the Akizuki clan) through the country at war.

1977, new version: George Lucas put all his inspirations into the first Star wars (from Castaneda to Flash Gordon) in 1977, and he admitted to borrowing the film’s structure from The Hidden Fortress ofAkira Kurosawa. The beginning of the story told from the point of view of two weak characters (the droids R2D2 and C3PO), then the escort of the princess by two opposing characters through enemy territory. More prosaically, the lightsabers, Darth Vader’s armor and the shutter transition effects between sequences are borrowed from Kurosawa-sensei’s cinema – just to return things, Lucas will also produce in 1980 the Kagemusha from the Japanese master.

Speed : Die Hard in a bus

1988, original recipe: John McClane (Bruce Willis), a New York cop, is stuck in a business building on Christmas Eve while terrorists (actually burglars) take the occupants hostage. McClane will save the day after many trials. The success of the film – and especially of its sequel 58 Minutes to Live – was such that, like the Sea teeth in 1975, all US studios wanted to have their Die Hard.

1993, new version: From 1992, we were therefore entitled to Deep Sea Trap, Passenger 57or Cliffhanger. All variations of Die Hard in different environments (a warship, an airliner, the mountain). But if Speed -a.k.a Die Hard in a bus- stands out is that its third act (in the metro) recycles a script originally written by Doug Richardson for a possible third Die Hard.

Outland, far from Earth : The Train will whistle three times in space

1952, original recipe: Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper) has just gotten married and wants to quit his job. But he learns that his sworn enemy and his gang of killers will arrive by the midday train. Abandoned by the townspeople, Kane will have to face them alone, before throwing away his badge and heading off into the distance with Grace Kelly.

1981, new version: In the science fiction film Peter HyamsO’Niel (Sean Connery) is the sheriff of a mining station on a moon of Jupiter. Who discovers that workers are drugged to work more (and live less). Nothing to see ? Except that the big boss sends his assassins via a space shuttle – the suspense is slammed on that of the arrival of the train in High Noon– and O’Niel will have to face them alone before heading into space with his wife.

Assault : Rio Bravo in Los Angeles in the 70s

1959, original recipe: Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne), helped by the alcoholic Dude (Dean Martin) and the gunslinger Colorado Kid (Ricky Nelson), must monitor a prisoner overnight while awaiting transfer. But Joe’s accomplices will besiege the police station…

1976, new version: Great admirer ofHoward Hawks, John Carpenter was also inspired by his Rio Bravo that of Night of the Living Deads for his second feature. In contemporary Los Angeles, a gang seeks to kill a witness who has taken refuge in a police station, which also receives convicts in transit. The assault will last all night. The closed doors, the haunting music, the mixed codes of horror and western: Carpenter, who also edited the film under the pseudonym John T. Chance, found the forms of his art there.

Jean-François Richet tells us about the creation of Mayday with Gerard Butler