Die Hard prequel: Bruce Willis will somehow appear in film set on New Year’s Eve 1979

The film marks the sixth instalment in the franchise

Considering the next Die Hard film is a prequel, you'd be forgiven - considering he's now sixty and the film is set before the original - that Bruce Willis could stay at home and put his feet up for this one; but no.

While Die Hard: Year One will depict a younger version of the John McClane we've come to know, producer Len Wiseman told Collider that Willis will still remain in the franchise.

Justifying this decision, he commented that, in the original, McClane "...comes in with so much baggage, emotionally, and experience. He's already divorced, he's bitter, his Captain hates him... So, what created that guy?"

If that doesn't sound tantalising enough, Wiseman added: "We've never seen the actual love story. We know its demise, but we've never seen what it was like when he met Holly [Bonnie Bedlia], or when he was a beat cop in '78 in New York... It's always been something I've been thinking about, and now we're doing it."

The film will be set on New Year's Eve, 1979 and, while unconfirmed, the plot will undoubtedly show McClane tackling issues probably involving terrorists.

"I'm not going to do it with Bruce being a cameo bookend gimmick," Wiseman said of Willis' involvement.

"It intercuts in a very fun imaginative way with present-day John McClane."

Die Hard: Year One will be the next instalment following A Good Day to Die Hard in 2013.

Last week, tributes poured out for British actor Alan Rickman - who played legendary antagonist Hans Gruber in 1988's original - who sadly passed away on 14 January.

Nobody has yet been cast as the young McClane but we're sure agents across Hollywood are currently making lots of phone calls.