The Wrap has a rather interesting exposé on the decision behind Henry Cavill's Highlander reboot jumping ship from Lionsgate to Amazon MGM.
Apparently, the story begins with the film's director , Chad Stahelski, who wanted a budget of $180 million to make the reboot. Lionsgate reportedly wasn't willing to go a penny north of $165 million.
On the surface, it's hard to imagine why a Highlander film would require such a robust budget. Other than VFX for The Quickening, the film should be a standard martial arts action film intermixed with swordplay. And while Stahelski turned John Wick into a billion-dollar franchise, he made the first three films for $30 million, $40 million, and $75 million, respectively.
The studio also had big concerns about the box office draw of Henry Cavill after several underperforming releases, including Argylle- the film carried a production cost of $70-80 million, and Apple paid $200 million to acquire the pic. The film grossed $96.2 million worldwide and premiered to subpar reviews.
The studio reportedly also cited The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which Lionsgate distributed in North America. The 2024 action comedy war film grossed $29.7 million worldwide from a production budget of $60 million.
Also, unnamed studio execs at Lionsgate told The Wrap that the studio worried that, "Highlander is a one-quadrant movie, catering to Gen X males who remembered the original movie (and the sequels and syndicated TV series that followed)."
The original write-up from The Wrap is behind a paywall, but it seems the site has sold the piece to Yahoo, where you can read it for free.
More recently, Chad Stahelski indicated that he planned to start filming the Highlander reboot this September for a 2027/2028 release.
Cavill meanwhile, just recently wrapped filming on another Amazon MGM, high-profile '80s remake, a live-action Voltron adaptation.
Stay tuned to SFF Gazette for updates as we await confirmation that filming on Highlander has started, as scheduled.
Highlander follows a fictional story that asserts that immortals exist, hidden within normal society. They must hunt and kill other immortals by beheading them in a contest known as The Gathering, which will see the last-standing immortal gain ultimate power.
While the origins of the contest is never explicitly explained, the franchise generally takes the stance that immortals have existed since the dawn of time and that the contest between them must only abide by three hard rules:
- combat on Holy Ground is forbidden
- combat must be one on one
- in the end, there can only be one.
The franchise started out as a 1986 action fantasy film which starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod. That film went on to spawn 4 sequels.
A spinoff television show premiered in 1992, starring Adrian Paul as Connor's descendant and fellow immortal, Duncan MacLeod.
That show lasted 119 episodes across 6 seasons and spawned two spin-offs of its own.