Bruce Willis is one of few actors who create memorable performances in practically any genre – whether drama (Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”), thriller (M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Sixth Sense”) or action (the blockbuster “Die Hard” film franchise).  Now, he returns to the genre that started it all for him – comedy (“The Blind Date”) — in Warner Bros.’ “Cop Out” from director Kevin Smith.

“Cop Out” features two longtime NYPD partners on the trail of a stolen, rare, mint-condition baseball card who find themselves up against a merciless, memorabilia-obsessed gangster.  Jimmy (Willis) is the veteran detective whose missing collectible is his only hope to pay for his daughter’s upcoming wedding, and Paul (Tracy Morgan) is his “partner-against-crime” whose preoccupation with his wife’s alleged infidelity makes it hard for him to keep his eye on the ball.

“Jimmy is a cranky, irritable cop with a wisecracking sense of humor,” offers Willis.  “He shoots first, asks questions later, and cracks jokes whenever he can.”

Says Smith, “During production, I sat around set all day and watched the movie in a little monitor, as directors do, seeing what the camera sees.  So in reality, I sat there all day watching a Bruce Willis movie, which is what I do at home anyway for free.”

Screenwriters Robb Cullen & Mark Cullen describe Willis’ character, Jimmy, as someone who’s been a detective for over 20 years, is divorced and somewhat lonely.  “He hasn’t gotten the breaks to move ahead in the department.  He’s more like the gunslinger of the old West, who has his own code of conduct,” says Mark.

Robb adds, “Jimmy’s very conflicted because his ex-wife has married up and is doing very well, his daughter now is participating in that wealthy lifestyle, and he’s still living in an apartment by himself.  And, on top of that, his daughter’s insufferable stepfather is practically shaming Jimmy into letting him pay for his daughter’s wedding.  I think all of that is adding up to making him feel less of a man at times.”

Not about to be upstaged at his own daughter’s wedding, Jimmy has made the decision to cash in his priceless ’52 Pafko baseball card to pay for something even more priceless—his daughter’s happiness.  However, mid-sale, the Pafko becomes the “victim” of a robbery, right under the not-so-watchful eye of Jimmy’s partner, Paul.  Paul is in the midst of his own family drama…even if it is of his own making.  In addition to trying to catch criminals, he is also trying to catch his wife in the act with another man

Michael Tadross, who produced two of the “Die Hard” movies, asserts, “I jumped at the chance to work with Bruce again.  The man is brilliant, he knows what he wants and he’s a friend, so it’s always a pleasure to be around someone like that.  Put Bruce Willis, Tracy Morgan and Kevin Smith in the same room?  I couldn’t wait to see what would come out of that.  Those three guys are at the top of their game.”

Tadross was not the only one who’d worked with Willis on a “Die Hard” film.  Offers Smith, “I’d worked with Bruce as an actor on ‘Live Free or Die Hard,’ and he called me at one point and said, ‘I’m an actor, you’re a director, we’re both from Jersey …we should do something together some day.’  So when Marc Platt said to me, ‘Hey, there’s a chance we can get Bruce Willis,’ I thought that would be amazing.”

Opening across the Philippines on March 3, “Cop Out,” is distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

First the computer. Then email, tiny cell phones and the Internet. Today, sexy robotic surrogates fill in for their less attractive human counterparts—regular people who no longer have to venture out into the real world themselves. In the world of Touchstone Pictures’ new sci-fi thriller “Surrogates,” has technology gone too far?

Based upon Robert Venditti’s wildly popular graphic novel of the same title, “Surrogates” is directed by Jonathan Mostow (“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”) and stars Bruce Willis, Radha Mitchell and Vhing Rames.

First-time author Venditti came up with the unique premise while working at Top Shelf Publications in their shipping warehouse in suburban Atlanta. Looking for a new spin on the graphic novel, Venditti recalled a sociology book he had read for one of his graduate school courses which depicted “an actual study of people who played one of those early community-type online games,” says Venditti. “I was fascinated by how these people just became so involved in this game, creating these alternate personas for themselves. They became so identified with them that they would lose their jobs, their marriages, because they just couldn’t separate their lives from this persona that they created. It was an idea that stuck with me—the basic human desire to be something other than oneself.”

The author fleshed out his idea further by imagining various reasons people would have for using a surrogate. “My idea was to create this persona that would go to work and earn money for you, a practical reason for having a surrogate. I looked at the idea of self-improvement, where these surrogates represent plastic surgery to the extreme where you could maintain yourself as forever young, or be more muscular—look like your dream self.”

Producer Max Handelman, a lifelong comic book aficionado, optioned the graphic novel from Venditti. He found the story’s themes compelling. “The story really moves along at a great pace and allows you to imagine something that could impact our society someday. Are we all going to have surrogates? Probably not. But it’s a metaphor for our society’s increasing reliance on technology and increasingly virtual communication.”

Handelman brought the comic to a college friend, veteran producer Todd Lieberman.  “I was looking for something with an edge, a film noir-type story and I found that in Robert’s story,” says Lieberman. “The movie starts with two really attractive people outside of a club. All of the sudden, some guy approaches and they fall dead. You have no idea what’s going on. In comes a detective, Bruce Willis’ character, and his partner. And you realize pretty quickly that we’re living in a world that’s not our world.

“The two people who’ve been killed are actually surrogates,” continues Lieberman. “Not only are the surrogates getting destroyed, but the people controlling them at home have been murdered, which is something that’s never happened in the history of surrogacy. The entire world of surrogates is at risk because the fail-safe of not harming the user is the cornerstone of the technology.”

Opening across the Philippines on Friday, Sept. 25, “Surrogates” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.

Bruce Willis has demonstrated incredible versatility in a career that has included such diverse characterizations as the prizefighter in “Pulp Fiction,” the heroic time traveler in “12 Monkeys,” the compassionate child psychologist in “The Sixth Sense,” and his signature role, Detective John McClane, in the “Die Hard” series. Now, he plays a conflicted FBI agent in Touchstone Pictures’ new sci-fi thriller “Surrogates.”

“Bruce is really one of the great film actors of his generation,” says director Jonathan Mostow. “It’s a very specific skill to be able to pull off movies that have a very high-concept idea behind them. Here, it’s an alternative reality, and yet he makes it credible. That’s really his gift.”

In the film, people are living their lives remotely from the safety of their own homes via robotic surrogates—sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves. These robots are fit, good looking, remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume the people’s life roles—enabling the latter to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes.  It’s an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don’t exist.  When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Greer (Willis) discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery.

“The thing about Bruce is he plays a great cop, but he also plays a great Everyman,” says producer David Hoberman. “Both from a philosophical and theoretical perspective, that’s what this character is. As he goes through this journey, he discovers what humanity versus surrogacy is, which leads his character to a great crisis. The movie also has action and all the things you’d want to see in a Bruce Willis movie.”

“In the movie, the humanity comes through in Bruce’s character,” Mostow says. “Like everyone else, he goes about his daily grind using this technology. He’s an FBI agent who stays at home, in the safety of his apartment, and allows his robotic surrogate to go out and perform all the dangerous tasks that are involved with his work. At a certain point, he loses his surrogate and is forced to go out as himself and experience life as a human being again in a world that is completely technological and robotic.

“At the same time, he discovers feelings that have been building up inside of him about his own disconnection from his wife, who’s addicted to using her surrogate,” the director continues. “He’s a man who’s in an existential crisis. As he begins to live as a human being, he realizes how warped the world is. He begins to see the world totally differently.”

“I see Greer as someone who has lived in and embraced the surrogate world for some time,” adds Hoberman. “Once his surrogate is destroyed and he can’t get another one, he’s a man, a human, out there in the world. Eventually he has to make a choice.”

“In this fast-changing 21st century, where the technological changes of the Internet and all these things are happening at warp speed, there’s this generalized anxiety in people as to how to adapt in that environment,” Mostow says. “And this story about surrogates speaks to that. It becomes an allegory for life in the technological age. People identify with different aspects of the story immediately because they see it in their own lives.”

Opening soon across the Philippines , “Surrogates” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.

In Touchstone Pictures’ new sci-fi thriller “Surrogates,” people are living their lives remotely from the safety of their own homes via robotic surrogates—sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves. These robots are fit, good looking, remotely controlled machines that ultimately assume the people’s life roles—enabling the latter to experience life vicariously from the comfort and safety of their own homes.  It’s an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don’t exist.

When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Greer (Bruce Willis) discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery.

In a world of masks, who’s real and who can you trust?

Directed by Jonathan Mostow (“Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines”), “Surrogates” also stars Radha Mitchell (“Pitch Black”), Rosamund Pike (“Die Another Day”) and Vhing Rames (“Mission Impossible”).

Opening soon across the Philippines, “Surrogates” is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures International.