Timing is everything, horses for courses, styles make fights, and every movie, no matter how packed with potential on the page, is subject to the whims of fate. And here's a casting "what if" that, had it gone a different way, might've turned one of the most beloved movies of the 1990s into a colossal flop.

Let's take a trip back to late June 1988. The summer movie season is in full swing. After a pokey start thanks to Ron Howard's Memorial Day dud "Willow," the box office has picked up under the power of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "Big," and "Coming to America." Moviegoers were gearing up for the July releases, which, with the likes of "Short Circuit 2," "Arthur 2: On the Rocks," and "License to Drive" on deck, did not look particularly promising.

And what to make of "Die Hard?" A big R-rated action movie ought to...