Die Hard/Predator Director John McTiernan To Helm 'Shrapnel'

The past decade has not been kind to John McTiernan. After a career making a name for himself with movies like Predator, Die Hard and The Hunt for Red October, his only two efforts of the last ten years—Rollerball and Basic—have been critically reviled, and they didn't perform so hot at the box office, either. Meanwhile, his personal life has been equally troubled, with the threat of jail time continuing to loom in the not-so-distant future. It's even caused his movie Run, which was set to star Thomas Jane, to be put on hold.

Don't count McTiernan out yet, though. He's just signed on to direct the indie action-thriller Shrapnel, from a script by Evan Daugherty that made the 2008 Black List. More on the film after the break.

Variety says the film tells the story of "two war veterans who hunt each other in a deadly game of cat and mouse". Could this be the film to revive McTiernan's career? It's certainly in his wheelhouse, as almost all of his films have had an element of cat-and-mouse to them. It's been a while since I've been impressed by a McTiernan picture, but I'd love to see him make a comeback.

With Evan Daugherty's script to work off of, that may just be a possibility, too. Daugherty's Shrapnel script has received high marks, and he's obviously been making an impression in Hollywood, since he was at one point hired on to pen a new draft of the Masters of the Universe movie.

When McTiernan will find time to make the film, however, is still in question. He faces sentencing for his criminal charges on October 4, so the results of that will likely determine how long it takes for Shrapnel to find its way in front of cameras.