Last year it was announced that A-Team director Joe Carnahan was adding a Death Wish remake to his list of updated action properties that would probably star Liam Neeson. Unfortunately, MGM had other ideas, and Carnahan dropped out barely a month later over “creative differences,” uncertain how anyone could make a middle-aged revenge thriller without Neeson, unless they maybe planned to use a body double and digitally superimpose Liam Neeson’s head on it? That seems like a lot of unnecessary work. Just get Liam Neeson.


Anyway, Carnahan was publicly, fairly diplomatic about his exit, but privately, he exacted the sort of vengeance Charles Bronson himself would seek were he alive in 2013, writing a nasty email that he then sent to MGM CEO Jonathan Glickman. And now that email has turned up in The Hollywood Reporter, so everyone can read it:

You had a potential Oscar-winning film with maybe the best script in Hollywood but because you're a coward and a dumb cunt you now have an untested, second-time director and an arrogant, lazy, aging action star that will run that poor kid into the ground. Good luck, asshole. You're a spineless, gutless turd who doesn't belong in the business. Enjoy your run as a 'studio head,' Glickman. It's going to be a short one. Fuck you, Joe Carnahan.


That “untested, second-time director” is believed to be Gerardo Naranjo, who took over the project in March, while the “arrogant, lazy, aging action star” is believed to be Bruce Willis, based on everything Bruce Willis has said in the last couple of years. Meanwhile, the “best script in Hollywood” was drafted by one of Carnahan’s favorite writers, Joe Carnahan. As for Jonathan Glickman, Carnahan’s rep Simon Halls insists he took being called a “dumb cunt” and “gutless turd” all in good fun: “This is typical banter,” said Halls, whose friendships sound terrible. He insists that everything’s cool between the two old pals, with Carnahan working on a project for MGM TV, and Glickman keeping the letter framed in his office, where the two share a laugh about it before chummily punching each other in the testicles, we assume.