Juan Carlos Fresnadillo In Talks To Reboot 'Highlander' [Updated]
The reboot of Highlander, which Summit has been working on with various degrees of enthusiasm for the past couple years, is getting a new director. Justin Lin was signed to make the film, but walked not long ago. Now Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, who directed 28 Weeks Later and now, four years later, has Intruders opening at TIFF, is in talks with Summit to direct the remake.
Update: This deal has been finalized; the press release from Summit has been added below.Deadline says that Summit is still working with the script drafted by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (Iron Man), which was polished by Melissa Rosenberg (Twilight). That's what Justin Lin was going to direct when he was attached to the project before bailing to do another Fast/Furious movie for Universal.
There aren't many more details on the new version of the 1986 film, which was directed by Russell Mulcahy and starred Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery as two members of a group of immortals who were drawn together in the Gathering to battle for the ultimate prize. It's too early to make any casting predictions, but Summit seems to be pretty high on the idea of remaking the film, so once Fresnadillo signs, assuming that he does, it shouldn't be long before names are thrown around for the major roles.
He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal. Connor Macleod was born in 1518 in the Highlands of Scotland. In 1536, after facing a mysterious, evil opponent, he survives a fatal stab wound and is banished from his village, for they believe his survival is the work of the Devil. Five years later, Macleod is met by Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez, a swordsman who teaches Macleod the awful truth; he is immortal, one of a race of many who can only die when the head is cut from the body. When one immortal takes the head of another, the loser's power is absorbed into the winner. Ramirez teaches Macleod the ways of the sword, until Ramirez is tragically killed by Connor's ultimate opponent, the evil Kurgan, a murderous immortal brute who lusts for the ultimate power of the immortals, "The Prize"; enough power to rule the earth forever. Connor fights his way through the centuries, until the time of the Gathering, when the few immortals who have survived the endless battles come together to fight until only one remains, and that winner will receive The Prize. The time: 1985. The place: New York City. The final fight is about to begin, and in the end, there can be only one.
Update: Summit released the following:
Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will direct Summit Entertainment's re-imagination of the cult film HIGHLANDER co-financed by RCR Media Group. Summit's HIGHLANDER is written by Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Neal H. Mortiz and Peter Davis will produce the project along with Enrique López Lavigne and Belen Atienza. RCR Media Group's principles Rui Costa Reis and Eliad Josephson will executive produce the film. Justin Lin will also executive produce. Summit acquired the rights to remake the cult classic from Davis – Panzer Productions, Inc. in May of 2008. Production on the film is slated to begin spring of 2012.
In HIGHLANDER, after centuries of dueling to survive against others like him, Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his kind, a murderously brutal barbarian, who lusts for the Prize.