With JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM hitting theaters this Friday, director Chad Stahelski is ready to devote more time to his reboot of HIGHLANDER, the 1986 fantasy film which starred Christopher Lambert as an immortal Scottish warrior. While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Stahelski gave an update on where they're at with the project.
"Still working on the development of that," Stahelski said. "Highlander is such a massive property. Luckily, the studio (Lionsgate) is really behind me in this. I truly believe this is one of those properties that could actually sustain a good universe, meaning a TV show or something. And to go out there, and just haphazardly throw together what we think would be a quick sword fighting-immortal movie, I think would be a mistake. And honestly, the people behind this, the studio behind this, they’re dying for this to go. If anything, I’m the one holding it back, and trying to creatively lay out everything. We just don’t want to paint ourselves into a corner creatively, like happened with the original." HIGHLANDER II: THE QUICKENING, the first sequel to the original film, infamously turned the Immortals into exiled aliens and is widely considered one of the worst films ever made. Clearly, Stahelski wants to be sure that his take on the franchise doesn't follow a similiar path.
We’re trying to really lay out this universe and not f— it up to the point where you cannot continue this story. We love it so much, we’re trying to treat it with a lot of care.
In regards to who would star in the HIGHLANDER reboot, Chad Stahelski isn't about to say, but admits that he does have a wish list of possibilities. I wonder who. The director initially said that he wanted to transform HIGHLANDER into a trilogy, but confirmed earlier this month that they've also considering presenting it as a TV series. In the meantime, we can look forward to JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 3 – PARABELLUM this Friday, so be sure to check out a glowing review from our own JimmyO.