Some 1980s genre pictures can be rewatched today, and feel as fresh and exciting as the day they were released: “The Thing,” “Gremlins,” “Predator,” “Die Hard,” “Back to the Future,” “Robocop.” With apologies to fans of the franchise, if there are such creatures, “Highlander” is not one of them. Shot like a Meat Loaf video, encumbered by one of the sillier mythologies out there, and rife with bad performances, it’s possible that the affection for the original has only come about because the sequels and spin-offs were so awful.
Nevertheless, with four years since the last straight-to-Syfy-channel sequel, “Highlander: The Source,” Summit has been moving forward on a remake of the original film in the past few years; producer Neal Moritz is shepherding the project, and drafts have come and gone from Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (“Iron Man“) and the Wibberleys (“National Treasure“) among others. Now, a fifth writer has come on board the forever developing project, someone more than familiar with silly franchises
Now, Heat Vision reports that Summit’s golden girl Melissa Rosenberg, writer of all five “Twilight” movies, will pen the latest draft. Rosenberg was a producer and writer on “Dexter” before her success on the teen vampire series, so we don’t want to leap to any conclusions about the majority of the reboot involving someone from the Clan MacLeod staring at the window while a Band of Horses song plays on the soundtrack, but it’s still not a particularly promising hire.
Justin Lin, director of the third, fourth and upcoming fifth entries in the “Fast and the Furious” series (and to his credit, several excellent episodes of “Community“), appears to still be attached as director, should the film ever move forward, and the hiring of Rosenberg suggests that Summit is making this a big priority. Oh happy day.