HIGHLANDER Remake Has a Director
Summit Entertainment has signed a director for their Highlander remake, and most of you have probably never heard of him. His name is Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, and this will be his first time directing a feature film. Before landing this gig he was a visual effects supervisor and second unit director on Snow White And The Huntsman. Fast and Furious director Justin Lin was attached to direct the movie at one point, but ended up dropping out. He's still a producer on the film though.
The studio is moving forward with a script from Iron Man scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. The story follows a character named Connor MacLeod, "a Highlander who discovers he is one of a dwindling group of immortals who wander the earth and kill each other in combat for the final “Prize” – immortality."
We really have no idea what to expect from this movie, or what the style will be like, so it's going to be a very big surprise to see how it turns out. All we know is that Nicolas-Troyan is a huge fan of the franchise. This is what the director had to say to Deadline about it,
“I have been working on my pitch for this since the summer, and when I got there I met the original producer and I just started geeking out and he loved it. The first movie came out when I was a teenager in France and it was one of my favorite films of those years. I loved the series also, they shot a lot of it in France, on the Seine River. My first reaction, like everybody else, was, really, do we need a remake? Then I read the script, and I thought about how Russell Mulcahy was this super visual video director who brought the pulse of the 80s to the film so well. I started thinking about taking those great characters and matching them with a modern, visceral take, and then I was in love with the idea and I just went for it.
For me, it all comes down to that first movie, but there are great themes in the show. It’s the rare cross-genre concept that has elements of the Western, time travel, fantasy, action, contemporary. There are universal themes, but of course you need to provide the answers like the first film did. Who are these guys with swords? Why are they fighting each other? What is the prize and how are they drawn to each other? There is far more at work here I want to explore than the lightning that happens during the Quickening.”
Now, just being a fan doesn't make you talented, but let's see what he's got! I hope it turns out well, and I wish him luck. Ryan Reynolds was attached to star in the film at one point, but he's not doing it anymore. Who else do you think would make a good fit for the lead role?