Juan Carlos Fresnadillo To Helm HIGHLANDER Remake?
28 Weeks Later helmer could ditch The Crow remake to instead redo another cult classic, the 1986 fantasy actioner Highlander.
I've never been a fan of the rather ludicrous, bottom of the barrel, 80's Z-movie Highlander but for some insane reason the movie has an ever loyal cult fanbase who keep it's franchise wheels turning, allowing for even more ridiculous sequels and T.V. spin-offs to be produced despite the there can be only one ironic message of the original. Not that they diminish our memory of the first film but there must surely be better NEW scripts out there for studio's to put their money behind rather than desperately trying to make this into a big money phenomenon that it will just never reach, but there you go. Don't get me wrong Highlander has a cool premise (a battle between immortals that stretches over the length of time) but never has it been realised to it's full potential. Despite this, Summit are backing Highlander to be some kind of money machine and this year they have been pushing ahead with a high-profile remake (think the same blockbuster level as Conan The Barbarian, which likewise nobody cared about) that has had drafts by various expensive scribes such as Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway and more recently Twilight's Melissa Rosenberg and has had Fast Five director Justin Lin attached to helm for a long while now. But with Lin desperate to get his Terminator film off the ground and likely to make Fast & Furious 6 next, Summit are sick of being left hanging out to dry and are pushing forward with a replacement hiring. Deadline reports today that Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, the uber talented Spanish helmer behind his native film Intacto (which is brilliant) and 28 Weeks Later (far superior to 28 Days Later) and who debuts the psychological drama Intruders (led by Clive Owen) in Toronto today, has entered talks with the studio to direct the redo that is co-financed by RCR Media Group. 
Clearly Hollywood like Fresnadillo but are seemingly desperate to have him climb the ladder of the remake/sequels machine as he is still attached to direct a remake of another cult movie, The Crow. Though with proposed lead Bradley Cooper recently dropping out and legal issues still to be sorted, that project has stalled, despite Mark Wahlberg and Channing Tatum coming into the mix recently. Right now Highlander is probably more favourite as a go-project as there's no legal problems here, Fresnadillo just needs a leading man and it's good to go. Camera's could even get rolling before 2011 is out. Shame to see such talented people waste their time on something like this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq4SqgxIKM0 P.S. - Rather hilariously, Deadline call the directing gig on Summit's Highlander redo a 'coveted job' which to me is about as depressing an indictment of the modern movie day industry as you are likely to find.