“The Witcher” star Henry Cavill plays one of the main roles – and is expected to finally step in front of the camera for it in 2024: Director Chad Stahelski’s “Highlander” remake is picking up steam after a long hiatus.
It’s been seven years since “John Wick” director Chad Stahelski announced his “Highlander” reboot – and with a premise that should make the hearts of all fantasy and action fans beat faster: It would be “like ‘John Wick’ with swords.” Then, two years ago, “The Witcher” star Henry Cavill finally joined the cast as the perfect leading man. But the project did not become more concrete in all these years – until now!
Because finally the remake of “Highlander,” which for us at FILMSTARTS is one of the best fantasy films of all time, is taking a very important step forward. Studio Lionsgate will be looking for buyers for the project at the upcoming American Film Market, which should help lift the hefty budget.
“HIGHLANDER” BECOMES BIG-BUDGET PRODUCTION
As Deadline reports, Lionsgate plans to raise the new “Highlander” as a big-budget production, at more than $100 million. The project now seems to be a big priority for the studio and finally has a more concrete schedule:
After Chad Stahelski shot three more “John Wick” films with Keanu Reeves in recent years, among others, the swords variant will now probably be his next project. And Henry Cavill is also free for a new big shoot after his exit from the Netflix series “The Witcher” – of course only after the end of the actors’ strike in Hollywood, which is currently still taking place.
As Deadline reports, a “Highlander” production start date is currently being targeted for 2024. Depending on how late in the year that will be, the new “Highlander” could perhaps hit theaters as early as late 2025.
REMAKE, REBOOT OR “BEST-OF”?
Even though there has been little concrete movement on the production of the “Highlander” remake in recent years, director Chad Stahelski proved that he is on fire for the project by repeatedly giving updates and talking about his ideas in interviews. For example, it is also already known that the new “Highlander” should not necessarily be a pure remake of the 1986 fantasy classic with Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery.
Rather, he wants to lay the foundation for a (new) “Highlander” franchise, i.e. reboot it, using a mix of all existing “Highlander” formats as a template. Thus, Stahelski explained, it wants to use elements not only from the theatrical films, but also from the “Highlander” live-action series, the “Highlander” animated series and the spin-off “
In the original “Highlander,” 16th century Scottish warrior Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) discovers, after what should have been a fatal injury, that he is immortal – and that there are others of his kind. MacLeod is trained in swordplay by the equally immortal Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez (Sean Connery) in order to stand up to the power-hungry Kurgan (Clancy Brown). In the New York of the year 1985 it comes then to the large Showdown…
