Bruce Willis will ''Die Hard'' a fourth time

What year is it again? We’re preparing to go to war against Iraq, Nirvana has a new song out, and Bruce Willis is getting ready to make another ”Die Hard” movie. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he’s agreed to star in ”Die Hard 4” for Twentieth Century Fox, though there’s no word on when the film might shoot or who will direct it.

What would persuade Willis to don John McClane’s tank top for the first time since 1995’s ”Die Hard With a Vengeance”? Three little words: ”Man of War.” That’s what Willis wanted to call his next movie, a thriller directed by Antoine Fuqua (”Training Day”) in which Willis’ commando must rescue a medic (Monica Bellucci) and dozens of refugees trapped in a Third World hot spot. That movie, due to be released in March, has had several working titles, including ”Hostile Rescue” and ”Tears of the Sun,” but Sony-based Revolution Studios really wanted to call it ”Man of War.” However, that title belongs to Fox, which agreed to grant Revolution a waiver if Willis would return to the franchise that launched his career as an action hero in 1988.

Of course, Willis also needs a hit, after a string of flops (”Hart’s War,” ”Bandits,” ”Unbreakable”) stretching back nearly three years. Why not return to an audience favorite? Yippee-ki-yay, motherf—–!