On the great scale of Dear God, Hollywood: Why? I’m gonna be honest, here: this barely registers. I mean, yes, no argument: Highlander was awesome, magnificent, and everything that you could ask for from a movie that was about immortal swordsmen who cut each other’s heads off. It’s also thirty years old. …My eyes keep skittering away from that sentence, by the way. I mean, intellectually, I understand that 1986 was thirty years ago. But in the gut? Nope. Nope nope nopeity nope.
Still: thirty years is not a trivial amount of time between movies. It’s more time than the gap between the two Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and just about the same distance between The Thing From Another World and The Thing. I know that they over-recycle films, but honestly: I think that I can handle some modern-style frenetic swordplay action, here. And getting one of the guys who co-directed John Wick to direct this one doesn’t sound too bad. I call ’em as I see ’em, folks.
Moe Lane
PS: My wife notes that the television series – which, for the sake of a peaceful home, I probably should not pretend does not exist – complicates this argument. So be it. I feel that the larger point stands; we can probably bear up under the strain of a Highlander reboot.
I like how you’re pretending we’re in an alternate timeline where II-V don’t exist
Which reboot is this? There has been talk of a remake for 5+ years. The original is great, but I will admit that it could use a refresh. Also agree with Zamoose about the existence of the sequels.
I enjoyed most of the TV show as well. I suppose they could play less fast and loose with actor choices lining up with character back story, (Christopher Lambert… Scottish? Sean Connery… Egyptian?) If Clancy Brown isn’t in the remake, however… RIOT.
Sean Connery was a Spaniard.
Nope. He was Egyptian. He actually says it at some point in the film.
You’re wrong. Connery’s character is explicitly a Spaniard.
One named Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, to be precise.
Ramirez: I’m not Spanish, I’m Egyptian.
MacLeod: You said you were from Spain. You’re a liar!
Ramirez: You have the manners of a goat. And you spell like a dung heap. And you have no knowledge of your potential. Now– get out!
As noted in the quote, he also claimed to be Spanish.
So he is a liar.
The available evidence supports the Spanish claim, and there is no obvious reason to believe the alternate story.
Plenty of evidence. A highlanders identity is forged by his place of birth and first death. Evidence – both Connor and Duncan McCloud and their frequent speechifying “I am XXX of the Clan McCloud” No mater where their travels take them or the names they take in foreign lands and different epochs, the identity remains. Ramirez states he works for the King of Spain and is currently using a Spanish name, but that does not a Spaniard make.
Well, to be fair, I wasn’t around in the distant past of the fictional universe from which Ramirez sprang, so I don’t actually know for sure which fictional version of a real country he was originally from. I can only go by what Ramirez says. If he’s lying, well, shame on him, I guess. He does end up being decapitated, so justice is served.
Don’t forget the Queen soundtrack ..
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Who are they going to get for that, Imagine Dragons?
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Mew
I wouldn’t put down Imagine Dragons. I actually like “Radioactive” a lot. However “Centuries” by Fall Out Boy would be a more appropriate for Highlander.
I wasn’t thinking of changing the main thematic music .. more of having a new band, with a distinctively bombastic (but not *Queen* bombastic) style cover ’em.
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I can imagine Imagine Dragons playing “Princes of the Universe” or “Gimme the Prize (Kurgan’s Theme)” .. I could easily see “Radioactive” replacing “Hammer to Fall” as music from a radio (or iPod?)
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I’m not at all convinced Imagine Dragons could pull of “Who Wants to Live Forever” ..
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Mew
Why get anyone else, you couldn’t do better than using a full soundtrack of Queen.
Freddie Mercury not being in Queen is like Moe Lane not posting at ..
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*swats self with newspaper, goes and sits in corner*
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Mew
I think he’s advocating using the same master track.
Which I support. No new music at all (except maybe during the credits).
Correct. If you need to fill it out, some of the less well-known, more fantasy oriented prog-rock stuff off of their first two albums is a good sonic fit to the rest of the soundtrack.
How does one replace Clancy Brown? I don’t think it would be hard to replace Christopher Lambert. There are enough decent Scottish actors that could fill the role of McLeod, but the original Kurgon will be hard to replace.
Dwayne Johnson?
If you want a wrestling actor, Triple H seems a better fit
… you cast Danny DeVito and use specially built sets and CGI to make him 8 feet tall?
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Okay, okay, just kidding!
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The Kurgon was .. terrifying, but wasn’t very well fleshed out as a person. Casting almost any competent actor who can pull off “villainous” would work, with the noted CGI above.
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Mew
I think my personal nostalgia should be the foremost thing on the casting director’s mind.
I’m going to reserve my remake ire for the poor soul who decides we need a new Princess Bride. Until then, my reaction is pretty much “meh”.
Burn the heretic!
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No, not Jay! This “soul” character Jay mentioned! The one who wants to tamper with perfection!
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Burn the heretic!
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Mew
Don’t ever speak of that, it’s like saying Voldemort, you don’t want to draw Hollywoods attention to the idea.
There were two main problems with Highlander:
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1) The first movie was all about The Gathering, or the final battle of the Immortals. Ops. Even the TV show had this problem, because The Gathering was at hand.
2) The actor’s will age. Just saying.
So maybe what this franchise needs, then, is an animated series? NOT a kid’s show, of course.
Having seen both the Highlander anime and the US cartoon series, no. Bad idea. The cartoon wouldn’t let heads get lopped off, for Pete’s sake. And the anime was… special.
animation did wonders for Star Wars during Lucas’ dark period of CGI infatuation
The second problem is the easier one .. grey and wrinkle the younger actors in the first movie, and by the time you film the last one, voila!
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The first problem is one of “which story do we tell?” .. the producers chose to shoot MacLeod’s arc, from quickening to the climactic gathering rather than picking and choosing other characters’ backstories.
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Done *well* – by which I mean spending more time on MacLeod’s life (and deaths) not just the gathering – and leaving the MacLeod arc on a cliffhanger (“Does he beat the Kurgan?”) would allow going back and following *other* arcs ..
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Given Hollywoods’ current pro-China penchant, perhaps a major character of Han descent?
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Mew
Complete side track, but the Highlander Series DVDs (along with Andromeda’s) are some of the best produced I’ve ever owned. Every episode was annotated with backstory on the Immortals in the episode and historical factoids about the flashback scenes. Seeing as they were produced in a time before Wiki and a widespread non-pornographic Internet, it was the kind of bonus content that actually was worthwhile, not just some videos and fluff promo pieces.
The above 30+ posts are why a “Highlander” reboot makes sense.
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People respond well to the idea, even [mumble] years later.
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Mew