Russell Crowe Joins Henry Cavill in Chad Stahelski’s HIGHLANDER Reboot

Russell Crowe is officially suiting up for sword-swinging immortality. The Oscar-winning actor has joined the cast of Chad Stahelski’s Highlander reboot, taking on the iconic Ramirez mentor role originally played by Sean Connery in the 1986 cult classic. He’ll star opposite Henry Cavill, who’s already been set as the film’s lead.

Crowe and Cavil previously appeared in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, so this project is a little reunion for the duo.

This new Highlander is coming from Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists for a full theatrical release, with John Wick mastermind Stahelski behind the camera. The script is written by Michael Finch, and the team is aiming for a a fresh, full-throttle experience.

For those new to the mythology, the original Highlander, directed by Russell Mulcahy, followed a centuries-spanning battle between immortal warriors, blending historical flashbacks with gritty present-day sword duels. It became a fan-fueled franchise with multiple sequels, a long-running TV series, and more than a few legendary lines. Yes, there can be only one, but clearly, there can also be reboots.

Stahelski seems to be playing the long game. United Artists has secured full rights to the 1986 original, previously developed by Lionsgate, and there’s already talk of expanding into a new series down the road.

Crowe is next appearing in Nuremberg, alongside Rami Malek and Michael Shannon, dropping November 7. He’s also wrapped up a Netflix thriller called Unabom, Walden Media’s Cold War drama Billion Dollar Spy, and the Derrick Borte-directed action flick Bear Country.

The director also previously teased the action in the film and explained that it will be inspired by the action in the John Wick films.

"I'll keep it to the core. Most audiences, I'll use the gun analogy, most of what you know about gunfights or car chases because most of us don't get involved in gun fights, or car chases, or sword fights, we learn through movies.”

"And what those movies show you is about 95% bullshit. You don't fight 50 guys with your bare hands and then walk away, but it's fun. It’s wish fulfillment.

“So John Wick, we know it's a cartoon – I know it's not – but we also have fun with it. But we do tactical reloads, we try to do fire manipulations, stuff like the professionals do, the military do. But then we have fun with it, you know? Sword work is very much the same."“

Cavill previously shared how big of a fan his is of the franchise and then said that the script for the film is “extraordinary” and that the movie will take some “big swings.” He said:

"I am a Highlander fan, they’re great fun movies. Obviously I watched them when I was a lot younger and have since rewatched, but also the TV show.

“I really enjoyed the lore behind it, that sense of a tragic warrior with more of a story to tell than a cool guy with a sword, doing cool things, and this goes even deeper into that.

"What they’ve done so far and we’re doing with the development of the script is extraordinary, I think people are going to be really, really pleased.

“Big swings are important, you play it safe, you’re going to just go, 'Eh, I suppose it’s fine?" but if you take a big swing, people love it or they hate it."

Stahelski also previously talked about the movie, saying it will include both familiar characters and "elements" taken from the ‘90s TV series.

"We’re looking to do our story [and it] engages a lot of the same characters and stuff like that. But we’ve also brought in elements of all the TV shows. We’re trying to do a bit of a prequel setup to The Gathering.”

“We have ideas for days about how to make the coolest characters and to make that an epic TV show. I just think that’s a rich, rich mythology."

Stahelski also explained that they are taking the best story elements from across the franchise and implementing it all into one story that will be spread out across a trilogy of films:

"I think the TV series hit on a lot of great stuff wasn’t in the feature, between the watchers and all the different types of immortals. How do we get this into a feature mode before we dribble it into the TV world?

“Well, let’s restructure it in parts, let’s look at it like it was a TV show, let’s look at it like it was a high-end trilogy. How to we tell the story of The Gathering, The Quickenings, The Immortals and how do we really build this world out even more so than the original project?

“That’s what we’re restructuring right now. It’s taking all the good stuff that we had before I was involved in the project from the script; redeveloping the script to give us really good chapters one, two and three; and expanding the world."

He also talked about his vision for the film, saying: "

The vision we’re trying to get across and what we’re trying to develop, I equate very close to Star Wars. The first one is a very satisfying ending but it does leave the door open and that’s kind of how I see this.

“I would really like to expand it over three. I see The Gathering happening over three. It’s tricky, don’t get me wrong, that’s why we’re still developing it. We want to be able to tell three complete stories that all kind of fit.

“I think the Star Wars trilogy, at least up to The Empire Strikes Back, is a good example of how we want to process it."

I very excited about this Highlander reboot and I hope that it delivers something awesome.

Source: Deadline