WELCOME BACK TO THE PARTY, PAL

JOHN MCTIERNAN HASN’T made a film since 2003’s Basic. But the director of some of the most beloved action movies of all time, whose career has been derailed by legal issues and a year in federal prison for perjury, refuses to give up. Back in 2014, he planned a sequel to The Thomas Crown Affair. That didn’t happen. Neither did DEA thriller Red Squad, or John Travolta dog-fighting drama Warbirds. As the 69-year-old behind Die Hard, Predator and The Hunt For Red October tells Empire, though, he has a new project lined up. “It’s a Marxist gunfighter movie,” he says with a laugh. “Would you see it?”

Why, yes, we would. Tau Ceti (“We may call it Tau Ceti Foxtrot, I’m not sure yet,” notes Mctiernan) is named after a star in the Cetus constellation, and as that might suggest, is a big, sprawling sci-fi tale, set on a war-torn planet and following a trio of weapon-toting strangers set on taking down the oligarchs who rule it. Uma Thurman is attached, as is Vikings’ Travis Fimmel. Only Mctiernan’s second sci-fi, after his troubled Rollerball remake, it was nearly ready to go, when life threw another spanner at his plans.

“We were about to shoot the film in Serbia when Covid happened,” he says. “And now I don’t know what we’re gonna do. I could also do it here in Canada. It’s easier to set up a bubble or set up some sort of isolation arrangement for a year. Although, in another six months I suppose we’ll have enough vaccines around that they can finally get it under control. And we can go back to work.”

It may have been nearly two decades since Mctiernan last pointed a camera at an explosion. But old habits... well, you know the rest.