It’s been seven years since ‘John Wick’ director Chad Stahelski announced his ‘Highlander’ reboot – with a premise that should set the hearts of all fantasy and action fans racing: It will be “like ‘John Wick’ with swords.” Two years ago, “The Witcher” star Henry Cavill finally got together with a leading man who fit like a glove. But the project has not become more concrete in all these years – until now!
Because the new edition of ‘Highlander’, which for us at FILMSTARTS is one of the best fantasy films of all time, finally takes a very important step forward. Studio Lionsgate will be looking for buyers for the project at the upcoming American Film Market to help cover its hefty budget.
“Highlander” will be a big-budget production
How reports, Lionsgate is planning to market the new “Highlander” as a big-budget production with more than $100 million. The project now seems to be a top priority in the studio and finally has a more concrete schedule:
After Chad Stahelski made three more ‘John Wick’ films with Keanu Reeves in recent years, the sword variant is now likely to be his next project. And Henry Cavill is also free for another big shoot after his departure from the Netflix series ‘The Witcher’ – of course only after the end of the actors’ strike that is currently still taking place in Hollywood.
How According to reports, production start of the “Highlander” is currently planned for 2024. Depending on what time of year this happens, the new ‘Highlander’ could hit theaters as early as late 2025.
Remake, reboot or “best of”?
While there has been little concrete movement in production on the ‘Highlander’ remake in recent years, director Chad Stahelski proved he is passionate about the project by repeatedly giving updates in interviews and talking about his ideas. It is already known that the new ‘Highlander’ does not necessarily have to be a pure remake of the 1986 fantasy classic with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery.
Instead, he wants to lay the foundation for a (new) ‘Highlander’ franchise, i.e. reboot it and use a mix of all existing ‘Highlander’ formats as a template. Stahelski explained that he wanted to incorporate not only elements from the films, but also elements from the live-action series “Highlander,” the animated series “Highlander” and the spinoff “Raven: The Immortal.” You can read more about this in the following article:
In the original “Highlander“In the 16th century, Scottish warrior Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) realizes he is immortal after an essentially fatal wound – and that there are others like him. MacLeod is trained in swordsmanship by the also immortal Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez (Sean Connery) to face the power-hungry Kurgan (Clancy Brown). The big confrontation then takes place in New York in 1985…