Bruce Willis stays a busy action man

Action stars may lose their currency as they move into their 50s. But Bruce Willis keeps on raking in the offers.

The newly remarried "Die Hard" star, who turned 54 last month, has been in discussions to shoot and fight his way through three indie action pictures -- a thriller titled "Inventory," the CIA tale "Red" and the mob biopic "Scarpa."

In "Inventory," Willis would play a detective on the trail of a murderer. It is set up at NuImage/Millennium, which is handling Sylvester Stallone`s latest crop of movies.

In the comic-book adaptation "Red," he would portray a former black-ops agent who is forced out of retirement when a high-tech assassin comes a-callin` to threaten him and his girlfriend.

Summit Films, the studio behind the "Twilight" movies, has made an offer on "Red," and Willis` camp has counteroffered, though those with knowledge of the talks say negotiations could yet break off without the sides reaching a deal.

Willis has also been weighing an offer from Morgan Creek to play the title character in "Scarpa," a mob biopic about Greg Scarpa, an FBI informant who worked deeply undercover in New York`s Columbo family, though the odds are growing that Willis won`t do that picture.

After making his name as an action star through most of the 1990s with the "Die Hard" movies and pictures like "Armageddon" and "Mercury Rising," Willis briefly took on less action-oriented parts in such films as "The Sixth Sense," "The Story of Us" and "The Kid" before returning to his trademark roles. He revived his John McClane character in "Live Free or Die Hard" in 2007.

Willis is attached to or is starring in a host of other action movies -- the buddy action-comedy tentatively titled "A Couple of Dicks" at Warners, likely to be his next movie, and Lionsgate`s adaptation of the video game title "Kane & Lynch." He next stars in the Disney sci-fi actioner "Surrogates."

Even brand-name actors have had trouble keeping action roles going once they hit the midcentury mark. But a select group of older icons like Stallone and Harrison Ford have found multiple jobs in action movies even into their 50s and even their 60s. Looks like Willis will be moonlighting that way too.

sections: Celebrities