Seventeen years have gone by since it was first announced that a remake of the 1986 fantasy action adventure film Highlander was in the works. The project has passed through the hands of multiple writers (Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, Melissa Rosenberg, David Abramowitz, Ryan J. Condal) and directors (Justin Lin, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan). Ryan Reynolds was attached to star in it, then dropped out. Now, it looks like the film is finally ready to go into production, with Chad Stahelski directing from a screenplay by Michael Finch and Henry Cavill taking on the role of Connor MacLeod, the sword-wielding immortal originally played by Christopher Lambert. It’s been a long process to get this thing rolling… but does Highlander need a reboot?
That original film, directed by Russell Mulcahy from a script crafted by Gregory Widen, Peter Bellwood, and Larry Ferguson, is going to be tough to live up to, let alone try to improve upon. How do you remake a movie that bombards its audience with awesome concepts, sights, and sounds for the majority of its 116 minute running time, starting with one of the coolest opening sequences ever put to film?
A voiceover from Sean Connery sets up that immortals (who we’ll learn can only be destroyed through decapitation) have been around for centuries, waiting for the time of “The Gathering,” their a final battle. Then “Princes of the Universe,” the first of eight Queen songs on the soundtrack, kicks in before we’re introduced to Connor just in time to watch him have a duel with an acrobatic Frenchman in a parking garage. Within the first thirty minutes, we get to see the battle in 1536 Scotland that revealed Connor’s immortality and the introduction of Clancy Brown as the scenery-chewing villain The Kurgan. The pacing is incredible, and we haven’t even gotten to Connery as Connor’s mentor Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez. There are some less interesting elements in the second half (that forensic scientist just isn’t as cool as everything else around her), but Highlander still holds up as a dazzling viewing experience all these years later. Stahelski is sure to pack the remake with impressive action, but it’s difficult to imagine the overall movie being as effective as the original.
I do see one purpose for a reboot, though. By starting over from the beginning, the new movie can be used as a stepping stone that can lead into a more cohesive Highlander franchise than we’ve ever had before.
The original film did not leave the door open for a sequel. It told the end of the story of the immortals; the door was firmly closed and locked. Producer William N. Panzer wanted it that way. He had no intention of making any sequels… until financial success convinced him otherwise. Every addition to the Highlander franchise since then – which has included four feature sequels, an anime, and a few TV shows – has had to find an excuse for its existence, either by retconning the events of the first film or other sequels, having new immortals arrive from a different planet (the original cut of Highlander II), having long-dormant immortals emerge from a cave, etc. The simple mythology was expanded in a “make it up as we go along” way, and it was enough to get a lot of viewers to say, “There should have been only one.” If Stahelski and his collaborators firmly establish a larger mythology from the start, we could have a franchise that makes sense every step of the way, no retcons or loopholes necessary.
The reboot could be a good movie. It probably will be. But it does feel kind of awkward that its main purpose for existing is to clean up and reset a messy mythology. I do look forward to seeing what they do with the sequels, assuming this one does well enough to warrant the making of sequels.
