When it comes to reboots of mid 80s cult sci-fi movies that we've been eagerly awaiting fresh news on, there can be only one! And it ain't Edgar Wright's The Running Man (although we are very excited for that one). No, we are of course talking about Chad Stahelski's hotly anticipated new take on Highlander, which is set to see Henry Cavill enter the swords and sorcery fray as the franchise's latest immortal hero. And, at Malta's Mediterranean Film Festival this past weekend, Stahelski revealed that his ambitious new project is set to start filming next January.
"We start shooting in January," said Stahelski in an interview with Collider's Steve Weintraub at the festival, "I go to Scotland on Monday to do the final location scout." And what's more, in the same interview Stahelski — the action master who brought us John Wick — also talked up his ambitions to take cinematic sword-fighting to another level with his Highlander reboot. "We have the right people, we have the right cast, we have the right trainers," he shared, "so it's more about how do you bring it all together and make it something [new]. It's not Princess Bride, it's not Crouching Tiger, it's not Master & Commander, it's not Zorro. What's this new look of action or sword fighting that people could be excited about? That keeps me up at night."
News of Highlander finally setting a filming date and Stahelski's involvement in the project will be music to fans of the franchise's ears, especially given the fact a reboot has been in the works since way, way back in 2008. Over the last sixteen years, names as varied as Tom Cruise, Ryan Reynolds, Justin Lin, and Dave Bautista have all been mooted to help continue the story of immortals battling across the centuries, an Uber-cool concept arguably never truly done justice on the big screen. But now, with expert swordsman Cavill signed up, Scotland beckoning, and Stahelski ready to shoot, it seems the storied franchise — once thought dead in the water — may well be immortal after all.