Jai Courtney is an Aussie name you'll need to know

Jai Courtney and Bruce Willis at A Good Day To Die Hard. Picture: Splash Source: news.com.au

Alison Stephenson, news.com.au, reports

You may not have heard of Jai Courtney's name before, but chances are you'll soon know it well.

The 26-year-old actor is enjoying a stellar rise to fame after booking three big-budget Hollywood movies in a row and is hotly tipped to become Australia's next big Hollywood star.

The humble Sydneysider has already starred alongside Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher and is in town to promote his latest flick, A Good Day To Die Hard.

Courtney stars as Bruce Willis' son in the blockbuster film, with intense speculation that his role was set up to one day allow him to take over the Die Hard franchise.

Next up, he star's alongside Kate Winslet and Shailene Woodley in the highly-anticipated Divergent.

Courtney spoke to news.com.au about his rise to fame, his likeness to Bruce Willis' and the ironic piece of advice given to him by Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis in a video (follow the link below).

A Good Day to Die Hard has so far grossed $256.7 million worldwide. It opens in Australian cinemas today.

http://video.dailytelegraph.com.au/2352297516/Australias-next-A-lister

Australian actor Jai Courtney takes Hollywood by storm with starring role in A Good Day to Die Hard

Jai Courtney is making his mark in Hollywood, playing Bruce Willis's son in the new Die Hard film. Picture: Nicole Cleary Source: News Limited

Neala Johnson, The Daily Telegraph, reports

Twelve months ago, Jai Courtney snuck into the Australian F1 Grand Prix on his bicycle.

The red carpet rolled out for the Sydney actor this past weekend as he returned a movie star - co-starring with Bruce Willis in A Good Day to Die Hard.

"It was a very different experience, there was no corporate hospitality, that’s for sure," Courtney laughed of his previous Grand Prix adventure. "Next year, I’m going to put a little more pressure on them to get me in that celebrity race - that looked like fun."

Courtney, 26, is already in top gear on the big screen, facing off against Tom Cruise in January’s Jack Reacher and now playing son to Willis’s iconic Die Hard cop Jack McClane.

A Good Day to Die Hard has so far grossed $256.7 million worldwide. It opens in Australia on Thursday.

"It’s certainly opening up some more interesting opportunities for me,” said the now LA-based Courtney. “I don’t think life has changed dramatically, but it’s a great thing."

Courtney said the toughest part of following in Willis’s action hero footsteps was “how confusing things can be”.

"This film is in a sense one big action sequence - it’s like a 90-minute chase. So many times you’ll forget where it is you are. You might sustain an injury and then three weeks later you’re shooting the scene that immediately follows that and it’s like, ‘Hang on, didn’t I have a piece of glass in my shin?’

"It’s quite a chaotic thing to do."

Kate Winslet could be Courtney’s next co-star, with the Aussie confirming he has “jumped on board” the movie Divergent, based on a series of best-selling young-adult novels.

Rising star's local gig

Jai Courtney

The Daily Telegraph reports

The impressive rise of Aussie actor Jai Courtney continues with the Melbourne thespian cast opposite Joel Edgerton and Tom Wilkinson in the cop drama Felony which is to be shot in Sydney next year.

Courtney will play a fresh-faced police detective who suspects Edgerton's character is lying about a hit-and-run case and gradually builds a criminal case against him.

Matthew Seville (Noise) is directing a script penned by Edgerton.

Courtney is set to appear as a bad guy in Jack Reacher opposite Tom Cruise and plays Bruce Willis's son in A Good Day To Die Hard - aka Die Hard 5.

Australian actor Jai Courtney cast to play John McClane's son in Bruce Willis's fifth Die Hard film

To play John McClane's son ... Actor Jai Courtney, pictured with Gemma Pranita, has been cast to star opposite Bruce Willis in 'A Good Day to Die Hard'. Picture: Julie Kiriacoudis Source: Herald Sun

The Daily Telegraph reports

Australian actor Jai Courtney has been cast to play opposite Bruce Willis in the next Die Hard movie, A Good Day to Die Hard.

Courtney, best known for his role as Varro in TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, will play everyman hero John McClane's son Jack in the fifth movie in the franchise, A Good Day to Die Hard.

The new film, which will be directed by John Moore, will be set in Moscow, Russia, where John McClane and his estranged son Jack take on the locals.

In a press release from 20th Century Fox, Courtney's character is described as "even be more of a hard-ass than his father".

A who's who of upcoming Hollywood actors auditioned for the role, but in the end it came down to Courtney and fellow Aussie Liam Hemsworth, who is starring in another action sequel The Expendables 2.

The film studio also released an image of Courtney's screen test with Willis.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who played McClane's estranged daughter in the last sequel, is not expected to be part of the new film, which will begin production in April, according to The Hollywood Reporter.