Hold onto your hats fanboys and girls, this is a doozy. Apparently “there can be only one” doesn’t apply to screenwriters. Melissa Rosenberg, adapter of the Twilight Saga for the big screen, has taken over writing duties on the new Highlander reboot.
The reboot itself was news to me. I had no idea they were plannning on an updated version of the 1986 Highlander film starring Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Summit, the studio behind the Twilight films, acquired the Highlander rights back in 2008 from Panzer/Davis Productions.
“Art Marcum and Matt Holloway wrote the initial draft while Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Sellek Wibberley also worked on the script,” says THR. Besides the Twilight Saga, Rosenberg has written episodes of the failed Birds of Prey television series as well as Dexter.
Neal Moritz (I Am Legend, The Green Hornet) and Peter Davis are producing the project and Justin Lin (Fast & Furious) is set to direct. Davis was the producer on the original Highlander as well as the subsequent television show and sequels.
So Highlander fans, what do you think of the Twilight screenwriter taking a crack at Connor MacLeod? I’m more than a little concerned. Then again, the last few Highlander movies have been pretty awful, maybe this will breathe some new life into the franchise. At least she’s familiar with immortals, albeit sparkly ones.
February 10th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Well, I guess the Highlander series was never about acting chops, anyways…
February 10th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
Tell me again *why* they are remaking it?
February 10th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
I’ve given up on Highlander ever being good again. I keep coming back to it like a victim of domestic violence. No more!
February 10th, 2011 at 4:42 pm
I remember watching Highlander for the first time and thinking, “You know what this film needs? Sparkly immortals.”
February 10th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
Great. Now, instead of lightning, glitter will come out of a decapitated immortal.
February 10th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
If she makes those Highlanders sparkle, then there’s gonna be a murder. But considering who got ahold of the rights, it seems no self-respecting studio is too concerned with doing it up right. I’ll wait and see. I’m just happy to see the Highlander story getting some attention. Hopefully they don’t eff with the mythology. But they likely will.
Remember when Aronofsky was going to reboot Robocop?
February 10th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
I didn’t think it was possible, but I actually threw up from anger..
February 10th, 2011 at 4:53 pm
Who knows, maybe she can make the transition from sparkly immortal to unwashed, wooly-garbed, beheading immortal. I wonder which Scottish actor they’ll get to play the Spaniard in this version?
February 10th, 2011 at 5:06 pm
because that’s what the Highlander franchise needed. Let’s make him emo, give him the sharpest sword on the planet, and tell him the other guy with the sword is hitting on his girlfriend. Two men enter, but only the one with the best hair leaves.
February 10th, 2011 at 5:14 pm
My mind boggles. What else has Rosenberg written? She didn’t write the original Twilight novel, she just adapted it to screen and apparently did an effective job of that.
Keep in mind that Highlander’s own filmmakers never knew what to do with it after the first one. The film had 3 theatrical sequels, none of which can possibly take place in the same continuity as the others. The movie’s owners didn’t understand what gave their own property its appeal…which doesn’t bode well for their judgment in hiring anybody to do a damn thing with it.
I could rant on this one for a long time.
February 10th, 2011 at 5:15 pm
On the one hand, aside from the TV series, every single adaptation of the first Highlander film has been even worse than all the other adaptations which have preceded it. The original Highlander was excellent, the second film was terrible, the third film was even worse, the animated series was even worse than THAT, and so on.
On the other hand, Highlander as rebooted by the Twilight crew has the very real capacity to make the planet Zeist look like Citizen Kane by comparison.
February 10th, 2011 at 6:14 pm
Re-writing the film, casting it properly – and with modern visual effects – the re-boot can be quite good. I don’t blame the TWILIGHT screenwriter for a crappy ‘sparkly vampires’ – I’m sure it can be done, done well, and as long as they ignore Zeist… We should see a good film… Or… We’ll have another CLASH OF THE TITANS…
February 10th, 2011 at 8:34 pm
News flash: the original Highlander, whichever iteration you care to mention, wasn’t actually any good.
Worst. Genre franchise. Ever.
February 11th, 2011 at 8:17 am
Ah, good, it’s been almost four months since I saw a film that I thought was a blaspheming shitsmear on the soul of art.
February 11th, 2011 at 5:16 pm
Wow. Insulting Highlander (everything except 2, “The Source” and “The Raven”) is like saying you want nothing you say to have any real importance to another human being ever again.
February 12th, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Really? “Highlander” is that central to you?
If you had said that about someone insulting Star Trek, or some Whedonverse thing, I could have had some degree of respect, but as it is, I just pity you.
February 16th, 2011 at 9:29 am
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