Highlander reboot slated for 2014


Acemace

 

Posted

There was also that monk that had been living in a monastery for 300 years, the "immortal refuge" where Duncan first met Kalas, and he died easily because of being out of practice.

Highlander is one series that sorely needs a reboot. I liked the first movie and enjoyed the series, but Adrian Paul is showing his years, and the last "movie" if you could call it that, made Highlander 2 look Oscar-worthy.

So I would welcome a reboot, so I'm looking forward to it.

Too bad that Highlander game for the 360 never came out, it looked like it might've been cool.

EDIT: Their relationship is simply them having been adopted by the same highland clan, though it happened years apart.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by NetMinder View Post
Highlander: Great movie except for you cast the penultimate Englishman, Sean Connery, as a Spanard..... in Scotland!!!! Srsly? WTF?
It's worse than that. Connery is Scottish. Bond may be the penultimate Englishman but Connery is very much the Scot.

I agree, though, it's a lot like casting Antonio Banderas as an Englishman.

Speaking of Connery, IMDB has this bit of interesting trivia from the "Highlander II" page:

"Apart from James Bond, Ramirez is the only other character Sean Connery has played in more than one film. "


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by NetMinder View Post
Highlander: Great movie except for you cast the penultimate Englishman, Sean Connery, as a Spanard..... in Scotland!!!! Srsly? WTF?
Actually, the character was Egyptian. From Wikipedia:

Quote:
Ramírez, whose true name is Tak Ne, was born in Egypt in 896 BC
Connery's character and accent didn't bother me that much. At the time he was in the movie (late 1400s or so), the character had already been alive around 2,400 years. Lots of time there to develop a different accent (or 6).


 

Posted

I thought the second movie did one thing right; it explained why they were on Earth and that they were being punished. That said, I think I made it 30 minutes into the movie before I started believing that suicide seemed like a better idea that finishing the movie.

I just wished the movies had stuck with the premise of; there can only be one.

I thought the idea of the "villian" in the 3rd movies being trapped in a mountain for years was dumb. I did not bother with the 4th or 5th movie and probably won't waste my time on a reboot either.


 

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Originally Posted by SlickRiptide View Post
Having just now gone to IMDB and read the plot summary of The Source, I can only feel justified in having stuck to a policy of "Anything after Highlander never actually happened"...

Some stories just don't require sequels.

Just for curiosity's sake - What relation is Duncan (who I presume to be the hero from the TV series) to Connor?
Connor and Duncan both hail from Clan Macleod, albeit 50 years apart. Or to put it as Connor stated in the series pilot

"I'm Connor Macleod, same clan; different vintage."

Highlander 5: the source was hoped to be the start of a trilogy that dealt with the immortal origins but the movie was SO BAD ....(HOW BAD WAS IT) that not only did it skip theater and immediate DVD release, it premiered on the SYFY Channel then went DVD. Also due to how Highlander 4: ENDGAME turned out, Adrian Paul said he was done unless he gained more creative control for future movies, thus Highlander 5 was initially written as just being "4 new immortal characters seeking the origins of the immortals". No Methos, no Joe Dawson, no Duncan. So getting them back in must've cost some money but the script felt like they were pasted back into the story.

Highlander 5 = worse then Highlander 2.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nericus View Post
Highlander 5 = worse then Highlander 2
I think my head just "asploded" even contemplating the idea that -anything- could be worse than Highlander 2.
Why, oh why could there not have only been one...


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Posted

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Originally Posted by Lothic View Post
I think my head just "asploded" even contemplating the idea that -anything- could be worse than Highlander 2.
Why, oh why could there not have only been one...
I think I was able to tolerate about 5 minutes of Highlander 5. Even that was a stretch. I cannot comprehend the notion that anyone was able to finish that movie.


Too many alts to list.

 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jerikko View Post
I thought the second movie did one thing right; it explained why they were on Earth and that they were being punished. That said, I think I made it 30 minutes into the movie before I started believing that suicide seemed like a better idea that finishing the movie.
No actually the whole Planet Zeist thing really killed the whole concept. There is a renegade director cut of the film that omits Zeist and does NOT help.


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I just wished the movies had stuck with the premise of; there can only be one.

I thought the idea of the "villian" in the 3rd movies being trapped in a mountain for years was dumb. I did not bother with the 4th or 5th movie and probably won't waste my time on a reboot either.
Well being buried "alive" is one way to stop an immortal, but Highlander 3 was basically a rewritten Highlander 1


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lothic View Post
I think my head just "asploded" even contemplating the idea that -anything- could be worse than Highlander 2.
Why, oh why could there not have only been one...
Trust me, Highlander 5 IS worse then Highlander 2.

I even saw on youtube the "European ending" of Highlander 2 that had Connor floating in the air was he was slowly returning to Zeist and asking her to come with him. She took is hand and they floated away.

Very Peter Pan style ending of heading to wonderland.......ugh.

But as bad as that alternate ending was, as bad as being aliens from another planet, as bad as the renegade version of #2 that omits Planet Zeist completely.......Highlander 5 the Source, was WORSE.


 

Posted

Way back when, I actually watched Highlander 2 in the movie theater. I sat through that, but wasn't impressed. I turned H5 off, it was so bad.

The first movie didn't make much sense and the rest of the films haven't either. The TV series, which I was a fan of, made little since bringing in the Watchers and explaining a little of what was going on, but after all the movies and the TV series I was left with the question: "Why?" I know a ******* explanation was given in H2, but I choose to ignore it as dumassness. I think that some cool stuff could be added and expanded upon with a reboot, and at least come out with an action/sci-fi film with lots of sword fighting. I've seen worse ideas...


@Joshua.

 

Posted

Summary of what is known of the current Highlander continuity:

It consists of retconned first movie where Connor cuts down Kurgan but it wasn't the final gathering. Then comes the series, then comes Endgame (4th movie). Highlander 5: the source sadly is part of this, but best ignored. Also movies 2 and 3 do not exist in this continuity.

Holy Ground: major cosmic penalty is implied in movie 3 and season 5 if an immortal kills another immortal on holy ground. Note: it is not known if an immortal killing a mortal on holy ground is taboo as immortals do not try to break this rule. A mortal killing an immortal on holy ground does not violate any cosmic rules as Horton and his hunters killed the monk Darius in his own church.

Quickening: the power and lifeforce of an immortal. Upon beheading, the power flows to the one that does the beheading. If beheading was done by accident then the power flows to a nearby immortal. If beheading is done and no immortal is nearby, then the quickening flows out and disperses into the sky. An immortal that takes another's head or is in proximity of an accidental beheading cannot refuse the quickening, the power will come to them no matter how fast they run away. (Duncan tried that in a season 1 episode)

Mortals should not witness the fights: that is to keep the immortal secret and avoid witch hunts, etc.

Fights are one on one: this is revealed to be due to the power going to the one that does the beheading.

Dark Quickening: an extremely rare event, an immortal absorbs too much evil into themselves will overload due to not being able to assimilate all the evil knowledge/essence and they will turn evil and be dominated/corrupted by the assorted evil personalities of the dark quickening. Killing such an immortal by another will pass the evil on and its a coin toss if the other immortal can assimilate it all without turning evil. Only psychic head trip/spiritual cleansing rituals have been known to reverse the damage of a Dark Quickening. Notation: killing one such as the Kurgan might qualify as Dark Quickening but he was killing all immortals both good and evil.

Light Quickening: also extremely rare. A good/holy/saint of an immortal is beheaded and the power goes to next immortal and turns them from evil to good. This is said to be what happened to Darius. He killed an immortal holy man and was changed by the quickening.

Proximity sense: this is an automatic ability that lets immortals sense when another is approaching. Range seems to vary, and it is an automatic power that cannot be turned off. Also an immortal can sense a pre-immortal but the feeling is said to be different. Note: this does not let an immortal sense an approaching mortal, thus the immortals can be ambushed by renegade Watchers as they are mortal.

The older can immortal, the stronger the quickening tends to be. The more heads an immortal has taken can also boost the power of a quickening.

Being on or near a conductive source of electricity will augment the quickening and cause damage to the surrounding area and power grid. Reference end of Season 3 when Duncan kills Kalas on the Eiffel Tower....the world's biggest LIGHTNING ROD!

If an immortal has a limb severed it will not grow back. Reference Xavier St. Cloud in season 1. He was "Disarmed" by Duncan in their fight and escaped and returned with a hook in place of his missing arm. Note: if he were able to pick up his severed arm and hold it in place it MIGHT have reattached. This was never clarified.

Throat wounds are bad news for an immortal. While the bleeding will stop and the wound will close, it tends to leave a scar on the neck and likely damages the vocal cords. Reference Kurgan and Kalas. Wounds received in other areas of the body will regenerate and leave no scar.

All immortals are orphans/foundlings, their true parents are never known. Immortals cannot have children, nor can pre-immortals have kids. Unless they adopt

The origins of the immortals are not known. Highlander 2 and 5 are discounted.


 

Posted

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Originally Posted by Forefinger_ View Post
Way back when, I actually watched Highlander 2 in the movie theater. I sat through that, but wasn't impressed. I turned H5 off, it was so bad.

The first movie didn't make much sense and the rest of the films haven't either. The TV series, which I was a fan of, made little since bringing in the Watchers and explaining a little of what was going on, but after all the movies and the TV series I was left with the question: "Why?" I know a ******* explanation was given in H2, but I choose to ignore it as dumassness. I think that some cool stuff could be added and expanded upon with a reboot, and at least come out with an action/sci-fi film with lots of sword fighting. I've seen worse ideas...
Basically the concept boils down to good vs. evil with the winner having the power to rule the planet. Things such as their origins or why they are immortal are basically dismissed with the concept of "We exist, leave it at that". Holy Ground was stated as being safe due to "tradition" in the first movie and never expanded on. How the "immortal game" first got started is unknown.


 

Posted

Interesting. I go by the show, the first movie, and the movie with Conner and Duncan for continuity. The rest of it is all kinds of blah. And my gods the last movie was horrible. As much as I thought the whole "There can be only ME!" line was amusing, the rest of it was just painful to watch.

But yeah, the whole concept has been kinda borked between the live action show, movies, anime, and cartoon. Highlander is waaay too far into a DBZ-esque Oh! Wait! There's this supertough badass who's been hiding all these years that you never knew about! type territory. >.<


Tales of Judgment. Also here, instead of that other place.

good luck D.B.B.

 

Posted

While no link to the actual script is given, here is an article that is a review of what the script for the reboot movie looked like nearly a year ago.

Script review

The blog doesn't say where the writer got the script or what revision it might be. Being several months old, if there IS a current script it's probably changed somewhat in the meantime.

If the review is accurate about the plot of the script, then I'm pretty sure I won't be changing my policy about the original movie.

*EDIT*

A little more research shows that the script is on its third writer so I suppose it's anyone's guess what the final shooting script will be like. By the dates, it looks like the review above was based on a reading of the first draft.


 

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Originally Posted by Agonus View Post
Interesting. I go by the show, the first movie, and the movie with Conner and Duncan for continuity. The rest of it is all kinds of blah. And my gods the last movie was horrible. As much as I thought the whole "There can be only ME!" line was amusing, the rest of it was just painful to watch.
I had to order a case of brain bleach to help diminish the memory of Highlander 5: the Source.

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But yeah, the whole concept has been kinda borked between the live action show, movies, anime, and cartoon. Highlander is waaay too far into a DBZ-esque Oh! Wait! There's this supertough badass who's been hiding all these years that you never knew about! type territory. >.<
Highlander 2, Highlander 3, Highlander 5, the animated series (egads it was bad!), the animated pilot to the animated series and the recent anime are in their own pocket universes and best ignored.


 

Posted

Quote:
Originally Posted by SlickRiptide View Post
While no link to the actual script is given, here is an article that is a review of what the script for the reboot movie looked like nearly a year ago.

Script review

The blog doesn't say where the writer got the script or what revision it might be. Being several months old, if there IS a current script it's probably changed somewhat in the meantime.

If the review is accurate about the plot of the script, then I'm pretty sure I won't be changing my policy about the original movie.

*EDIT*

A little more research shows that the script is on its third writer so I suppose it's anyone's guess what the final shooting script will be like. By the dates, it looks like the review above was based on a reading of the first draft.
Just read the review of that script......ugh. Somewhat palatable but not really. Still it feels better then Highlander 2 or 5 so that is a plus.


 

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Originally Posted by Verene View Post
skip the 5th (the source), your life will be better for it.
Are you kidding?


You HAVE to watch that ****!! Preferably with some movie-riffing friends and a couple beers in ya.


 

Posted

So, Here's a challenge - Pitch your idea for Highlander 2, a sequel to Highlander that does NOT invalidate any of the original movie.

Here's an off-the-cuff pitch of my own, just to get things rolling:

---------

Highlander: Rebirth

The year is 1995. We see an older Connor Mcleod typing on a computer. He finishes whatever he is doing, then pops out a CD, which he places in a plastic case and carries to a nearby bookcase. He presses a catch and the bookcase swings away to reveal a hidden closet. His sword is here, along with mementos and boxes of unknown contents. He places the CD in the closet, caresses the sword, and closes the bookcase/door.

Moments later, outside the house, a shot rings out and a storm of lightning bolts jumps from the house to the cloudless sky.

Skip ahead to 2015. Young Duncan Mcleod sits in a lawyer's office. He is turning twenty and is about to receive his full inheritance, which has been held in a trust fund setup by his father before his suicide. The assets he receives include a cryptic videotape; a recorded message from his father that begins a journey to an education in the ways of the Immortals and the Quickening.

Around the world, strange things are happening. News programs report scientific studies showing that Global Warming processes appear to be accelerating. In Russia, a criminal is shot and killed, only to wake up on a morgue table a few hours later. In Afghanistan, a squad of soldiers is killed by a roadside bomb, yet one of the soldiers unaccountably revives. In France a suicidal woman leaps into the Seine, only to find herself a day later on the shore and unaccountably undrowned.

Through a series of adventures, young Mcleod is brought face to face with a truth that his father realized - The Quickening is not a one-time event. It is a concentration of spiritual energy that is a survival mechanism of the species. The Quickening happens when the species approaches an evolutionary crisis. The winner of the Prize becomes mortal so that the energy is released back into the world upon his death, and the Game begins anew. Sometimes the white hats win. Sometimes the black hats. Genocide is sometimes what the species requires to survive. This is why Cro-Magnon Man displaced Neanderthal Man. This is why **** Sapiens has evolved through one crisis and another. Now, there is an approaching evolutionary crisis - a climate catastrophe that will threaten the very existence of mankind.

Rather than let the cycle once again run its path randomly, Connor makes a decision to control the upcoming new Game and direct it as much as possible. To use a literary example, he uses his knowledge gained by the Prize to become Hari Seldon and to appoint his son Duncan to be the leader of the Second Foundation. Young Mcleod, through his father's financial resources, stockpiled knowledge and recorded guidance, is to create The Watchers; a group whose purpose is to find nascent Immortals of the next Game, teach them the minimum that they need to know about their condition, and manipulate them when possible and necessary to achieve the goals of the Watchers.

This goal is nothing less than the survival of humanity when the global catastrophe arrives. The next Quickening will be the sign of its impending arrival and at that time the Watchers must put Connor's plans into action and support the champion among the Immortals that they have chosen as worthy to lead Humanity through the catastrophe to whatever awaits beyond it.

The first threat to the plan arrives in the form of Rostov, a Russian gangster who uses his newfound power to track down every Immortal he can find and absorb their power. If left to his own devices, the Plan will be derailed before it can even begin. Obi Wan, er, Duncan must find a champion among the newly minted Immortals to bring up to speed quickly to face and defeat Rostov and insure that the Plan is successfully launched. Will Luke defeat Vader permanently? This remains to be seen...

Yeah, it sucks, but I'll put that suck up against any sequel I've heard of so far. heh.


 

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I can beat that with four words:

Highlander Vs. Demonic Toys.


Always remember, we were Heroes.

 

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr_Darkspeed View Post
I can beat that with four words:

Highlander Vs. Demonic Toys.
LMAO

"Here's your problem. The Good/Evil switch was set to Evil!"


 

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Originally Posted by sleestack View Post
There cannot be only one!!! (Because there's money to be made on sequels, reboots and tv series).

Personally, I just pretend that there was only the first Highlander, and none of the other dreck that goes by the name Highlander ever happened. The first movie was very well done, and had a satisfying ending. There never should have been any sequels, etc.

As for this reboot? Meh. I probably won't see it. Exactly what new or different take are they going to bring to the story that won't actually diminish it?
I pretty much do this myself. The cartoon was pretty cool though.


 

Posted

Aging myself here, but I saw Highlander in the movie theater. I was 10 or 11, and Mom loved Sean Connery. The movie had a real impact on me as a kid. I watched the TV series, own most of the seasons in fact. I watched all the movies. I hope that in a reboot of the brand that they don't make the end THE Gathering, and just make it a build up to it. That way they can make a sequel without the need to retcon anything. The whole Highlander 2 they are aliens thing...was just...bad.


No one pays attention to me, cause I listen to the voices in my head.

 

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Originally Posted by Nericus View Post

Quickening: the power and lifeforce of an immortal.

Dark Quickening:...not being able to assimilate all the evil knowledge/essence and they will turn evil

One thing I always wondered about, when you defeat an Immortal & get his Quickening (Power, Lifeforce, Knowledge), does that include all their fighting skills as well?
(…And by extension, the fighting skills of all the Immortals who’s Quickening he took.)


 

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Because of this thread, I just HAD to add the TV seasons into Netflix streaming to rewatch. I'm just hoping my memories aren't dashed.

Thanks a lot


I've already forgotten about most of you