Highlander The Reckoning is a Reboot?
Posted by Rodneyon 08. 11. 2010in Headlines, News Chat
I list Highlander as one of my Top 10 all time favourite films. The whole thing is a masterpiece from the action of immortals swordfighting to the brutal careless bloodlust of the Kurgan. And let’s not forget the entire soundtrack performed by Queen.
Now after a number of sad sequels and two interesting but not great TV series, a sixth film is being produced. But flavour of the year says REBOOT, and the movie looks like it will forget the rest and start all over again.
Live for Films says:
Work is moving ahead on Highlander: The Reckoning which will be the sixth in the film series. Justin Lin (Fast and Furious) is to direct. Iron Man screenwriters Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are working on the script.
However it looks as if it will be a reboot of the 1986 film and will follow the story of an Immortal from the highlands of Scotland, once trained by ancient Immortal Ramirez, fighting in modern times against other immortals in a “contest” called the Gathering; a contest whose ultimate end line is that there can be only one.
I think that The Highlander is deserving of a reboot. The terrible films that followed all paled in comparison for one reason, they had to dance around the premise of the film that was resolved already.
There can only be one!
And herein lies the biggest issue. If they do this film justice and it does really well at the boxoffice, history dictates that they will attempt to make a sequel.
THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE!
What makes the movie work SO well is that they don’t go too deep into “why” they are immortals, who made up these rules, and how they even know about the Gathering. They don’t need to.
We see enough of the life of Lambert’s Highlander, how he deals with immortality and the perfect mix of fun, romance and adventure that leads up to the final confrontation and The Prize. And that’s the end.
I look forward to seeing how they handle a reboot, and wonder if it will ever do the original justice, but I fear that the success I hope for it might be its biggest drawback.
I found Highlander 3 and 4 were quite good, it was only 2 and The Source that I found were horrible. Normally when I watch them I’ll watch 1, 3, and 4.
I agree with you Rodney, Highlander is deserving of a reboot. As much as I love the original, I think there are some things they could improve upon script-wise.
What will be a total letdown is the soundtrack, How can you improve upon the Queen soundtrack? Well you cant really, everyone is going to be let down no matter what.
I hate all Highlanders because the killed Donnie Yen off camera YOU DON’T KILL DONNIE YEN OFF CAMERA (LOOKING AT YOU BLADE 2!!!)
Ha fanboi of DY haha. I Like DY but please haha.I can’t be a fanyboy of anyone who uses wires.
Donnie Yen did not use wires in his greatest film yet(IMO), IP MAN!
IP Man = DY’s greatest work, no strings needed just straight ass kicking.
i saw highlander a while back and couldnt wrap my head around why some people like it so much maybe its because i wasnt old enough to see it at the time
Well at the time Highlander was amazing. Christopher Lambert just exploded on the scene with this role. Sean Connery was at the pinnacle of his career and was very popular.
I knew just as many women how saw Highlander as men, besides being a guy movie it had a very romantic love story that traversed time. His original wife that passes from old age in the Highlands, and finding his new love in modern times. This made the movie very appealing to women. You add in the amazing soundtrack from Queen… what else can I say.
The Highlander TV series was insanely popular with women as well.
Just my thoughts.
Started to write my own version of highlander hope I get it done before this lot as mine will be really great.
If not I hope the casting is done better like a scotsman playing the highlander and a scotmans not playing an egyptian.
from someone whos seen all the films and all the tv episodes of Highlander TV series and Raven and all the spin off films, yeah its nice to have a reboot.
But as the original poster said there can be only one… to make another will simply kill it.
It would just have to be a one off film, cos then the 2nd one comes out and then oh wait another immortal woke up from his slumber and he really didnt win the prize, he was just having an electrifying orgasm in mid air for 3 minutes (lucky bloke)
But as with anything its all about the money, I agree with Anti-Septic comments, Lambert/Connery were just in there prime and topped with an amazing Band such as Queen which the music was tailored for just cannot be replicated in any reboot, it many just fail but since Hollywood/World has run out of good ideas we got nothing else to watch !
“What makes the movie work SO well is that they don’t go too deep into “why” they are immortals, who made up these rules, and how they even know about the Gathering. They don’t need to. ”
the same thing that makes Conan The Barbarian works so well. they didn’t bother to explain the details but it still works…BEAUTIFULLY.
back to Highlander - I’m 50-50 on the reboot. advancements in movie magic & fight choreography will make it look better. but it will always be compared to the original, which have set the bar real high.
just my two cents.
The only way I see it working is if they go in planning a trilogy. That’s not likely though, because they’ll need the first to make money before the 2nd and 3rd get the green light. The TV series worked pretty well for several years so I can see nothing that would prevent a trilogy from working.
Let the franchise rest for 10 more years. Then Remake the original. Again, like MANY MANY other franchises, the end of the movie was just that, THE END.
Studios need to stop trying to prequel, shoehorn or otherwise extend an otherwise very satisfying moviegoing experience.
Spend that energy by developing new and probably fewer projects. Ever looked at how many films were produced in 1986? Less than half of what is produced today.
Let films that can stand on their merits breathe and grow word of mouth. RED is a perfect example of this right now. I believe that if there were 3-4 new movies every week, RED, would actually be increasing it’s grosses.