Caffeinated Clint
There can be only one…. Or a dozen, I’m not sure.
A reboot of the ‘80s classic “Highlander” has been in the works longer than… well, Sean Connery’s kilt in the 1986 film.
Chad Stahleski, of “John Wick” fame, is the latest filmmaker attached to breathe new life into the seemingly never-ending series but his plan might have been tweaked.
Out talking up the highly-anticipated “John Wick 3” with Collider, Stahleski spoke a little about the challenges he’s facing on the project, as well as the possibility of possibly doing it as a series for Netflix or another premium-cable outlet.
“Highlander is an interesting property. It’s through Lionsgate as well and Neal Moritz. We’re trying to get it done. Anyone who knows anything about the property knows it has a lot of meat to it. It’s a good property. It’s got a lot of potential. We’re just trying to figure out the best way not to f–k it up.
Not to try and fit it into a 1 hour, 45 minute movie, which, when your pitch is, ‘There can be only one,’ and in your first movie you kill everybody but the one, sequels have a problem of happening. So we’re trying to design in a way that gives us a little more lead in, a little more time with the mythology and see some of the best characters.
They did seven seasons of TV, and even though the TV show may not hold up today, the idea of it and the characters they brought in were super cool. So we’re trying to devise a methodology that leads up to The Quickening.”
He’s not committed to only considering the big screen for the venture either.
“We’re well past the script phase in terms of what we want to accomplish with a feature-length version of what we want and based on there being more after that. We want to tell the complete story of The Quickening, the Immortals, and all that. But the overall environment is changing so much. Look what Netflix is doing with TV now.
As an action designer myself, there are two or three episodes of Game of Thrones that blow away 90% of features. Netflix has a whole new delivery system with features on that coming off differently and letting filmmakers and directors expand out without being crushed by opening weekend box office. So there’s a couple different mediums we want to explore and what is the best way to bring this out in.”
Rumored candidates for the Connor MacLeod role over the years have included everyone from Ryan Reynolds to Gerard Butler with Dave Bautista recently rumored for the role of The Kurgan.
