John McTernan turned down the film as well

On several occasions, to be specific. At first, he found the material to be too dark and cynical for him. The original screenplay was a grim and violent terrorist movie. Once he got his hands on it, within 2 weeks of working on it, he decided he wanted to make it a fun, date movie. So instead of the motive being terrorism, the true motive was a robbery, and robbers can bet fun.