HIGHLANDER Number 1 To Become Number 2?
Iron Man scribes drafted to reboot the Highlander franchise for Summit Ent.
Time was, there could be only one. Now it seems one is not enough.
Summit Entertainment has acquired the rights to the 1986 sci-fi cult favorite Highlander and will produce a remake, to be scripted by the Iron Man writing duo of Art Marcum & Matt Holloway.
Directed by Russell Mulcahy (Resident Evil: Extinction), the original Highlander featured Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery and Clancy Brown as immortal beings battling humans, hunting down one another and collecting more power. Lambert starred as Scottish swordsman Connor MacLeod; Connery portrayed his ponytailed mentor, Ramirez; Brown played the Kurgan, probably the scariest barbarian ever brought to the screen; and Queen provided the musical theme, which is as much a character as any of the above.
The film and its signature "There can be only one" motto spawned four sequels and multiple TV incarnations, both live-action and animated, plus novels and comics. The most recent film, Highlander: The Source was a Sci Fi Channel original.
According to BORYS KIT of The Hollywood Reporter, Summit purchased the rights from Davis/Panzer Productions.
Summit co-chairman/president Patrick Wachsberger said, "I have always dreamed of reinventing this franchise."
Original producer Peter Davis, who will return for the new iteration, explained that the remake will incorporate more backstory elements to expand the saga in a way that is inventive yet faithful to the classic version.
"If they’re going to remake something, how about remaking some of the bad ones?" bemoaned Cinema Blend's JOSH TYLER in a scathing Wednesday editorial. "[The original] Highlander on the other hand, is...the whole reason people cared about all this sword swinging and head chopping in the first place."
"I would hate to think that people viewed Highlander as a sword fighting movie because it's much more than that," said producer Davis. "The issues of an immortal falling in love with a woman and knowing she's going to grow old and die in your arms, those are very romantic issues to deal with."
"Granted, there has always been a tragically romantic element to the franchise, and in fact that was one of the things which made Highlander: The Series so flat out good," admitted Tyler. "But Highlander doesn’t need MORE romance. It was pretty good as it was."
CHUD's DEVIN FARACI thinks that trying to fight Hollywood's rehash machine is pointless, so one simply must be prepared for the next product.
"I have an idea on how to streamline my job: I'm going to spend a couple of weekends creating articles for remakes of films that haven't been remade yet," he deadpanned. "If I had already instituted this system I could have just pressed a button and published an article about a remake of Highlander; when you think about it, it was utterly inevitable."