Summit Entertainment’s Highlander reboot lands first time director Cedric Nicolas-Troyan

There hasn't been much movement on Summit Entertainment's HIGHLANDER reboot since Ryan Reynolds left the project in June. Without a star or a director, things were looking pretty bleak for the reboot. But Deadline is reporting Summit has now found a director, and it will be Cedric Nicolas-Troyan. The reboot will be the first feature film directed by Nicolas-Troyan, but he was the visual effects supervisor and second unit director on SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN. Cedric Nicolas-Troyan has also done visual work for films such as THE RING and ONE HOUR PHOTO.

Deadline spoke with Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, and he says that he wasn't sure about a reboot because he loves the original films and the television series, but was sold once he read the script and started to think about what he could bring to his movie.

“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."

Nicolas-Troyan went on to talk about how his reboot will draw inspiration from the television series as well as the first movie, and that HIGHLANDER is much more than just a couple of immortal dudes trying to cut each other's heads off.

“For me, it all comes down to that first movie, but there are great themes in the show,” he said. “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.”

Cedric Nicolas-Troyan also says he is interested in casting an up-and-coming actor to play Connor MacLeod.

“Back then Christopher hadn’t done a lot of things and was just emerging, and Sean Connery, that movie brought about a real resurgence for him,” said Nicolas-Troyan. “We have to find that younger emerging guy, and surround him with a strong Kurgan, and an actor who shines as Ramirez the way Connery did in that film film.”

It sounds like Cedric Nicolas-Troyan really loves HIGHLANDER, and the reboot should be in good hands. Some fans might be worried about a first time director behind the camera for the film, but it really does sound like he enjoys and gets the material. I'd much rather have a person that appreciates the previous films and the series directing the reboot than someone who only took the gig because it is a job.

No release date yet for the HIGHLANDER reboot, but filming should start sometime in 2014.