A few months ago, despite the hype surrounding the reboot of «Highlander», Lionsgate abandoned the project — and now it turned out that the reason was nothing more than money.
According to The Wrap, directed by Chad Stahelski, who brought franchise «John Wick» for billions in earnings, allegedly demanded a large budget of $180 million — an unbearable amount for Lionsgate, but quite acceptable for Amazon, which took over the project (recall that this company owns the production of the most expensive in the history of the series «Rings of Power»).
«Highlander» by Stahelski — is a remake of the 1986 British science fiction film by Russell Mulcahy. The original film told the story of immortal fighters, the characters of Christopher Lambert, Sean Connery and Clancy Brown, who must fight «until there is only one left» — and later became a media franchise with several more films and a TV series starring Adrian Paul For reference, the «Highlander» series has earned only $141 million at the box office in its entire history, adjusted for inflation, so Lionsgate’s hesitation seems quite understandable
Other reasons include a very niche audience and… Henry Cavill. It turns out that the studio was worried about his recent unsuccessful projects, like «Argyle» or «Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare».
Amazon is expected to start production on «Highlander» in June. Earlier, Stahelski said in an interview that the film was planned for release in theaters in 2027-2028.
As for Cavill, after Farewell to Superman and The Witcher, hasn’t had any other big project besides the two mentioned above, but given the previous deals, there are prospects: besides «Highlander», the actor signed on to a movie based on «Voltron» and is engaged in the adaptation of «Warhammer 40,000».
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