The ‘John Wick’ director Chad Stahelski still really wants to reboot ‘Highlander‘ and is open to doing so for television or the big screen. The man who gave us an intense new form of cinematic gunplay wants to head into the realm of swordsmanship and bring back an iconic property at the same time. While it is hard to get behind rebooting yet another franchise for the modern era, this is one which could be interesting. If Stahelski were indeed to take on the property, he wouldn’t just slap on a fresh coat of paint but be someone that gives it a new feeling regarding both the plot and the style of the sword fighting itself.
During a set visit to ‘John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum’, Stahelski was asked about the “Highlander” franchise and where it was in development:
“Still fighting the good fight. Highlander is an interesting property. It’s through Lionsgate as well and Neal Moritz. We’re trying to get it done. Anyone who knows anything about the property knows it has a lot of meat to it. It’s a good property. It’s got a lot of potential. We’re just trying to figure out the best way not to fuck it up. Not to try and fit it into a 1 hour, 45-minute movie, which, when your pitch is, ‘There can be only one,’ and in your first movie you kill everybody but the one, sequels have a problem of happening. So we’re trying to design in a way that gives us a little more lead in, a little more time with the mythology and see some of the best characters. They did seven seasons of TV, and even though the TV show may not hold up today, the idea of it and the characters they brought in were super cool. So we’re trying to devise a methodology that leads up to The Quickening. You just don’t end with a one-on-one battle in New York, cut off a guy’s head, and that’s it. We want to do this in such a way that it becomes more of a series whether it’s short form or long form that would let us explore that in the best way. I have a huge, heartfelt love and respect for the project, so we’re trying to find the best way to do it to give fans what they want.”
It isn’t just the format which they’re looking into but how to make the story matter. It is clear that Stahelski wants to give both an emotional impact and have solid reasoning behind their take on The Quickening. However, if it does end up as a television series the director has quite a few ideas:
“We’re well past the script phase in terms of what we want to accomplish with a feature-length version of what we want and based on there being more after that. We want to tell the complete story of The Quickening, the Immortals, and all that. But the overall environment is changing so much. Look what Netflix is doing with TV now. As an action designer myself, there are two or three episodes of Game of Thrones that blow away 90% of features. Netflix has a whole new delivery system with features on that coming off differently and letting filmmakers and directors expand out without being crushed by opening weekend box office. So there’s a couple different mediums we want to explore and what is the best way to bring this out in.”
It sounds as if the creative team might have already decided that a feature film may not be the best format to tell the story that they’ve developed.
Are you interested in ‘Highlander’ being rebooted? If it does end up going into development would you rather see the franchise return as a new set of films or an ongoing television series? Most importantly, will they still use the classic Queen song for their soundtrack? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
Source: Collider
