Back in August, Justin Lin vacated the director’s chair for the latest in Hollywood’s seemingly endless string of remakes – jumping off Highlander to spend more time making Vin Diesel and Paul Walker jump off moving trains on to moving cars (or similar) with his next entry into his wildly successful spin on The Fast and the Furious franchise. Summit Entertainment has now announced that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo will take on directorial duties for their Highlander reboot/magination/whatever, so let’s all pause to yell “there can only be one!” and move on with the news.
Fresnadillo will direct from Melissa Rosenberg’s script, with the film poised to start filming in the spring of 2012. Summit’s official press release gives a quick plotline for the new film – “In HIGHLANDER, after centuries of dueling to survive against others like him, Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his kind, a murderously brutal barbarian, who lusts for the Prize” – so, yes, rest easy, this is definitely a Highlander film.
Fresnadillo is best known to filmophiles as the director of such films as Intacto and 28 Weeks Later. He’s currently in Toronto in support of his latest horror flick, the Clive Owen-starring Intruders. Oh, and he also remains on board to direct The Crow remake, which is still without a leading man following the departure of Bradley Cooper. Will Fresnadillo take on Highlander before The Crow can get off the ground? We’ll see. In any case, Fresnadillo is capable of creating dark, moody, and slightly off-kilter films, so it will be interesting to see in what direction he takes both Highlander and The Crow for their latest incarnations.
And, as is becoming my new (least favorite game), how long do we think it will take before Summit announces that the film will be in 3D?
