Bruce Willis and Len Wiseman on the set of Live Free or Die Hard Frank Masi/Courtesy of 20th Century Fox

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Director Len Wiseman told PREMIERE about the challenges of making Maggie Q look not too beautiful, what it's like being Bruce Willis's boss, and something called "The Len Wiseman Backyard Version."

You're obviously a younger director. Bruce Willis, let's be frank, is nearly old enough to be your father. Did you, as the director, feel entirely in control of the movie? Or did you feel like, Well, this is Bruce's movie, I'm just trying to make sure everyone shows up on time and hits their marks?
There are always a lot of opinions involved when making a movie. It wasn't a question of me being a young director, or the fact that Bruce is older. It was more of the fact that it's Bruce's franchise. I am such a fan of the first film; I know it in and out. I really know that character. I think if you asked Bruce, he'd say the same thing, that we really did recreate that character together. With so many people involved with the movie, there are always going to be different opinions on how Die Hard 4 should turn out, working with Bruce, working with the studio. I think I gained a lot of respect, I got more control of the movie once I gained that respect and, of course, that takes a little bit of time. At the end of the day, I had control of the movie, as director. It is something I can say is my movie.

Many people think of the last Rocky to be Sylvester Stallone's "do-over," righting all the wrongs of Rocky 5. Live Free or Die Hard is infinitely superior to Die Hard 3. Was there this sense of, We're trying to get this wayward franchise back on track?
To be honest, I had concerns. About halfway through, all of a sudden, I panicked, and thought, God, Len, you're directing Die Hard 4! And 2 and 3? You didn't even like them that much. And you're directing 4? What the hell are you doing? I didn't approach it with this sense that I needed to "get it back on track." I just really had this mindset that I loved the first one — as a kid growing up, it was a very important movie for me — and I really just felt like I wanted to make a sequel to that movie. That's how I approached it. I wanted to make a Die Hard movie that reminded me of the Die Hard that I liked. So I saw this as making a sequel to that one that I loved. That was how I went about it.