Bruce Willis has been a frustrating case for many years now, appearing in z-grade schlock with a look that suggests not just waiting for his paycheck, but mentally filling out his tax returns. But he can still act, as evidenced by the 2012 miracle duo of Looper and Moonrise Kingdom. Of course, the promise of those films was all but exterminated by the time the next year came along and brought with it Red 2 and Die Hard 5. But there was hope, hope for a promising new future. Willis signed onto appear in Woody Allen’s next film, his involvement being in the first round of casting announcements for it, alongside Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. Alas, that promise too has been wiped out, as Willis has left the production while it was still shooting.

The official word on the matter is that Willis left the project to do an adaptation of Misery on Broadway. But there are rumors that he was fired by Allen for whatever reason. This version of the story is strengthened by Willis being seen on set, doing something that looks a lot like shooting for the movie, the day before the announcement of his leaving the project came out (the photo of this can be seen in the header). If the shit-hammer did indeed come down on Willis, he can rest a little bit easy knowing that he’s far from the only one who’s had this experience with Allen. The most legendary example is Allen shooting September two times, with cast members including Christopher Walken, Sam Shepard, Maureen O’Sullivan, and Charles Durning getting shuffled out during reshoots (which were literal re-shoots, in this case), but there’s more than just that. Glenn Close was set to appear in Anything Else, but she was cut out of the finished product (presumably with the film’s rumored time-travel element), as was Vanessa Redgrave in Celebrity (you can find her somewhere in the final scene, though). And Michael Keaton was originally cast in the Tom Baxter/Gil Shepard roles in The Purple Rose of Cairo, before Allen decided he wasn’t right for the part ten days into shooting. They split amicably, and Jeff Daniels stepped into his roles, and the rest, they say, is history. If I’m remembering correctly, Allen promised Keaton to include him in a future film, and that still hasn’t happened. Maybe he’d be alright in the Willis part in this movie…