Director Chad Stahelski recently talked about his upcoming one Highlanders reboot and shared some new details about the film’s plot. He also talked about how he became convinced Henry Cavill to join the project.
While many people don’t like it when Hollywood remakes classic films, there is a lot of excitement about it because of the talent involved.
During an interview with The Direct, Stahelski said: “We’re taking it forward from the early 1500s in the Highlands to the present day, in New York and Hong Kong, and see how it goes.
“There is a great opportunity for action. There’s a chance to play a character that not many people get to play. And it’s a bit of a love story, but not in the way you think. With John Wick I learned a lot about how to bend the narrative a little bit.”
As for how he convinced Cavill to star in the film, he explained: “My selling point was: [Cavill]look, you have a guy who has lived for over 500 years. He’s the last person in the world who would have wanted to be in this situation.
“So you can cover a pretty broad arc of characters. And you get to experience someone who has trained for over 500 years and played [with many types of] martial arts.”
Yes, I would sign up for the project too! This seems like an incredibly interesting character to play! The director also teased the action of the film and explained that it will be inspired by the action of the John Wick films.
He said, “I’m going to keep this in the deep end. For most of the audience, I’m going to use the gun analogy, most of what you know about gunfights or car chases because most of us don’t get involved in gunfights or car chases, or sword fights, we learn through movies.
“And what those movies show you is 95% bullshit. You don’t fight 50 guys with your bare hands and then walk away, but it’s fun. It’s wish fulfillment.
“So John Wick, we know it’s a cartoon – I know it’s not – but we also have fun. But we do tactical reloads, we try to manipulate the fire, things like the professionals, the military, do. But then we have fun, you know? Sword work is much the same.”
Cavill previously shared that the film’s script is “amazing” and that the film will go through some “big swings.” He said, “I am a Highlanders fans, these are very funny movies. Obviously I watched them when I was much younger and have since rewatched them, but also the TV show.
“I really liked the lore behind it, that feeling of a tragic warrior with more of a story to tell than a nice guy with a sword, doing interesting things, and that goes even deeper into this.
“What they’ve done so far and what we’re doing with the development of the script is amazing, I think people will be really, really happy with it.
“Big swings are important, you play it safe, you just say, ‘Huh, I guess this is good?’” but if you make a big swing, people either love it or hate it.
Stahelski also previously revealed that the film will include both familiar characters and “elements” taken from the ’90s TV series.
He said: “We are trying to make our own history [and it] it involves a lot of the same characters and stuff. But we also brought in elements from all the TV shows. We’re trying to create a sort of prequel to The Gathering.”
The gathering refers to the culmination of the almost eternal battle between the immortals. He went on to explain that they’re setting up the whole thing to expand and grow the story: “So, we have room to grow the property.”
“We’ve had ideas for days about how to make the most interesting characters and turn them into an epic TV show. I just think it’s a rich, rich mythology.”
Stahelski also explained, “I think the TV series hit on a lot of great things that weren’t in the movie, between the viewers and all the different types of immortals. How do we get it into a movie mode before we dribble it into the ?TV world?
“Well, let’s restructure it in parts, watch it like it’s a TV show, watch it like it’s a high-end trilogy. How do we tell the story of The Gathering, The Quickenings, The Immortals, and how can we really build this world even more effectively than the original design?
“This is what we are renovating right now. It’s about taking all the good material from the script that we had before I got involved in the project; rework the script to give us really good chapters one, two and three; and expand the world.”
The original from 1986 Highlanders starred in the film Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery, AND Clancy Brown as immortal beings, hunting each other and gathering more power. The film’s classic tagline was: “There can only be one.”
He also spoke about his vision for the film, saying: “The vision that we’re trying to convey and what we’re trying to develop, I consider it very close to Star Wars. The first one is a very satisfying ending but it doesn’t do that.” leave the door open and that’s how I see it.
“I would really like to expand it to three. I see The Gathering taking place over three. It’s complicated, don’t get me wrong, that’s why we’re still developing it. We want to be able to tell three complete stories that all fit together.
“I think that Star Wars trilogy, at least until The Empire strikes againit’s a good example of how we want to process it.”
It has been revealed that the film is aiming for a 2026 release date.
by Joey Paur
Source: Geek Tyrant
Lloyd Grunewald is an author at “The Fashion Vibes”. He is a talented writer who focuses on bringing the latest entertainment-related news to his readers. With a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and a passion for writing, Lloyd delivers engaging articles that keep his readers informed and entertained.
