Another day, another remake. Heat Vision broke the story today that Melissa Rosenberg, the woman who has been adapting all the Twilight novels into screenplays, is in negotiations to take over the pending Highlander remake for Summit Entertainment. Justin Lin has been tapped to direct, with Neil Moritz and Peter Davis on board as producers.
For those of you who don’t remember the original 1986 movie, the plot it as follows: Connor MacLeod (played in the original by Christopher Lambert) is an immortal being living in 15th century Scotland who is kicked out of his village for not dying after being wounded (harsh). He is taken under the wing of another similar to him (Sean Connery) who teaches Connor the art of swordsmanship and also gives him the knowledge that the only way to kill others like him and Connor is to cut their heads off. Why would he need to know this? Well it turns out that whoever is the last Highlander standing gets the prize to end all prizes: the spiritual ability to know everything. And we mean everything here folks. Naturally, this sets him on a centuries long quest which culminates in 1985 New York City for “The Gathering” in which the last remaining Highlanders do battle for the prize. Also, there apparently can be only one. I think they mention that at some point.
On the heels of the 1986 original’s success, a franchise was created that spawned three sequels (four if you count a straight-to-DVD one) and a popular syndicated TV show starring Adrian Paul as another MacLeod named Duncan. The two MacLeod’s ended up meeting in the last in theaters film, 200o’s Highlander: Endgame.
With such a history and potentially such a big fanbase to tap into, it makes sense for Summit to resurrect the franchise; and even though I hate the Twilight movies more than I hate the idea of quitting smoking, Rosenberg could probably write it in such a way to make it appeal to the same demographic and in turn create a whole new audience following the adventures of centuries-old Scottish immortals who like to decapitate one another. But it’s unclear if she’ll go that route; for all we know, this is going to remain a more adult property and Rosenberg would use it to sort of break free of the sparky vampire/CGI werewolf chains that have held her captive for the past few years. She did used to write for Dexter after all, so there is something more to her writing than those movies do show.
I’m sure we’ll have more information on this news story as it develops but until then I’m going to hum the Highlander TV show theme that is now stuck in my head all over again.
Do you want Highlander to come back or could there be only one…attempt at this franchise? More importantly, does Rosenberg have inside her blood of kings (I hope you get that joke)?