Highlander: Chad Stahelski gives news of the reboot with Henry Cavill
“The thing is, when your tagline is ‘There can only be one left’, you can’t kill everyone straight…”
The reboot of Highlander has been under study for fifteen years at Lionsgate and has seen quite a few screenwriters, directors and actors pass before settling in 2016 on Chad Stahelski to the staging. In 2021, Henry Cavill joined the project to play the main role.
Except that since this announcement, the two men have been very busy: the stunt director turned director has continued to work on the saga John Wick successfully, while the actor was involved in the series The Witcher for Netflix. But they are not giving up on the idea of bringing back the immortal who has had great popular success since the film with Christophe Lambert and Sean Connery released in 1986.
Since his arrival on the project, Chad Stahelski has always said that he would not shoot his Highlander that once he got the right story, he loves Connor McLeod’s story so much. “I’ve been a fan of the first movie since I saw it in high school, he said accepting the job. Lhe themes of immortality and love are so great!”
In 2019, he added: “We try to build the project in a way that brings the story well, gives more time to the mythology and brings out the best characters.“, and expressed his wish to explore the complex temporality of history written by Gregory Wilden.
After hesitating for some time between a film or a series, he now claims to have an effective script by Ryan J. Condal (House of the Dragon), John Petro (No Exit) and Kerry Williamson (Seven Sisters).
Asked about the evolution of the project within the podcast Happy Sad Confusedhe explains : “I think we have some very good ideas for Highlander, now. The thing is, when your tagline is ‘There can only be one left, you can’t kill everyone straight…I’ll tell you: our story takes a lot of the characters from the original, and lots of details from that world, and we’ve also included elements from the different TV shows, so we’re trying to make a kind of prequel. Who would tell how we got to ‘The encounter’ (The Gathering, which pushes immortals to confront their counterparts, and which is one of the basic rules of Highlander, editor’s note). We have enough elements to make this universe evolve.”
Now that Henry Cavill is no longer attached to the roles of Superman and Geralt of Rivia, this reboot of Highlander will it accelerate? Could Chad Stahelski turn it before he floor on John Wick 5 with Keanu Reeves? He doesn’t give a date, but hints that this concept is advanced enough to be able to get the green light from the studio soon. Finally, when the actors and screenwriters on strike have reached an agreement with the Hollywood studios, of course.
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