It seems Ryan Reynolds is being courted by Lionsgate and Summit for their remake of Highlander. Variety broke the news last week. It’s unclear whether an offer has been made but sources tell Variety that both sides are still in talks.
The basic premise of Highlander is that immortals, that can only be killed by decapitation, fight each other, with swords (duh), till in the end only one is left (tagline: “There can be only one”). A basic last man standing game plan. There are rules however 1) only two people per fight 2) there is no fighting on holy ground. Of coure the movies don’t make it clear who enforces these rules or if there are any consequences to breaking them. Of course with a bunch of sword wielding immortal decapitators I trust they’re not following an honour system.
Highlander (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For those who haven’t seen the original, of which I trust there are only a few, the story follows the immortal Conner MacLeod, the Highlander, as he battles the Kurgan to the death to claim the prize (if we were to go by the first movie the prize would be the ability to father children, grow old and knowledge). Not sure if the remake will follow the same plot but all I ask is that they keep Queen’s original soundtrack.
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The movie starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, Clancy Brown as the Kurgan and Sean Connery as Ramirez.
The franchise has gone a little down hill of late with Highlander: Endgame and the striaght to DVD Highlander: The Source (the first movie to not feature Conner MacLeod). But I suppose if we were to get technical it would be possible to say the franchise went down hill from the first sequel (Highlander II suggested the immortals were aliens a fact later retconned like so much bad history) and never really recovered. Altough the 90’s TV series did keep it from sinking any further for a while (it predated the aforementioned Endgame and The Source).
While Reynolds’ involvement is only speculative at the moment he has not signed on to any new projects yet and has not dismissed the rumours of his involvment either. It is possible he may view this as the franchise that The Green Lantern failed to become. All the raw materials are there the question is can he make something of it. Of course the same could have been said of The Green Lantern.
It has previoulsy been reported that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (28 Weeks Later) will be directing the remake – taking over from Justin Lin who left to do another Fast and Furious movie but will remain as executive producer – based on a script by Matt Holloway (Iron Man), Melissa Rosenberg (Breaking Dawn part 1), and Art Marcum (Iron Man).
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Ryan Reynolds will next appear opposite Jeff Bridges in R.I.P.D on June 28, 2013.
Valley of the Deer 