Joe Carnahan has been having a difficult time finding a follow-up to his 2011 film The Grey, which is somewhat surprising considering that the movie was both a critical and commercial success. He was attached to direct a new Daredevil movie for Fox last year, but was then forced to abandon it when the rights reverted back to Marvel. He had also signed on to write and direct a Death Wish remake for MGM and Paramount, but alas he has now apparently decided to walk away from that project as well. The reason? He didn’t want to cast Bruce Willis in the lead role.

According to Deadline, Joe Carnahan has officially left the Death Wish reboot over creative differences. Word on the street is that the studio wanted Bruce Willis for the lead role but Carnahan wasn’t having it. I guess he simply did not feel that Bruno would make a suitable replacement for Bronson (or maybe he heard all the horror stories about what it’s like to work with Willis).

The good news is that Carnahan now has a few other options that he is pursuing, including Narco Sub, an action-thriller about South American drug runners using semi-submersible crafts to smuggle cocaine into the United States. Tony Scott had been lined up to direct this movie prior to his death and it was described as being reminiscent of Crimson Tide and Man on Fire. Considering that Carnahan is heavily influenced by Tony Scott, this seems like a great choice. Would you like to see him direct Narco Sub? Do you think he was right to reject Bruce Willis as the new star of Death Wish?

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