Highlander: Redux

Now, I was ecstatic to find that five whole seasons of Highlander: The Series was now available on my Xbox’s Netflix, so, as I tend to, I delve into the internet and wikipedias to look up details about the series to reflect on the good all days, and if they were as good as I recalled. Come to find, there’s rumblings of a Highlander reboot in the works!

There area few series out there that have been mismanaged, to say the least.  We’ve had Halloween’s foray into odd masks and convoluted backgrounds.  But little have been as confusingly mishmashed, yet retained a fan base as Highlander has.

The original Highlander is an 80’s action classic.  The movie had me at 5 years old from the opening scene in the parking lot of a wrestling event.  The Queen-based soundtrack was amazing.  And with the finality of the ending, you would be happy.

Then we were surprised by Highlander 2.  I remember old Entertainment Tonight episodes talking about some of the most dangerous stunts attempted at that time for this movie.  I remember watching it and being curious about the return of the dead Sean Connery, and future explanation of the immortals being aliens.  Surprising, but accepted at my young age.  The recut Renegade version didn’t help matters much.

Then we had “The Final Dimension“, where we decided that winning the prize still worked because everyone forgot about a handful of immortal baddies stuck in a cave for a few hundred years.  Right.

I initially rejected the TV series, due to throwing my hands up at it making sense in retrospect to anything else that had been released.  I never got into it until it’s reruns on Sci-Fi years later after some prodding by my sister, who subscribed to the show’s merchandise catalog, and found it stood amazingly on it’s own.  Throw in Highlander Endgame, which felt like a great return to form, and extension from the series, only to be dissapointed to the straight to TV/DVD “The Source”.  When the wikipedia states the following:

“Adrian Paul and Peter Wingfield both expressed regret at making the film and as a result, the film is ignored by fans and producers alike.”

Nearly 25 years of rollercoaster-like highs and lows, two Highlanders, not to mention more Mcleods from cartoons and video games

Looking at the Wikipedia, it looks like Kevin McKidd (Rome, Journeyman) and Vinnie Jones (Gone in 60 Seconds, “…The Juggarnaut, bitch”) are up for the parts of Connor McLeod and The Kurgan, respectively.  That, plus the director of the 4th Fast and the Furious film make for an interesting combination, at least.