In an age of remakes, re-imaginings and reboots, the Highlander franchise has been slow in getting off the starting-blocks, going through a range of potential directors who all departed for other projects when the momentum stalled. The current director attached is Cedric Nicolas-Troyan (the second-unit director on both Snow White & The Huntsman and Maleficent). Recently no less than Tom Cruise was said to be a prospect for the role of Ramirez (Sean Connery in the original) and though that seemed like a wish-list, there was a certain logic to a huge screen presence as mentor to perhaps a lesser-known actor in the role of Connor MacLeod (originally Christopher Lambert). Neither Cruise nor the actor to play Connor have been confirmed as yet. Ryan Reynolds was attached as Connor at one point but dropped out. Another actor linked to the project in the past few years was Journeyman/Grey's Anatomy actor Kevin McKidd, though he confirmed to Impact in 2012 that he'd not even been approached.
But there's now word that another of the key-roles in Summit Entertainment's new version may have been filled, though no-one is confirming the news for sure. Dave Bautista had a spectacular 2014 with the mega-success of Guardians of the Galaxy, which in turn has led him to playing Mr Hinx, one of the bad-guys in the next James Bond film Spectre. Now, according to the often reliable Latino Review site) it looks as if he may be stepping into the shoes and armour of the Kurgan, the nihilistic Immortal who featured in the very first (and still the best cinema-version) Highlander.
Progress has been notoriously slow, but with some sign of momentum and the thirtieth anniversary of the original film approaching, it may well be that there is genuine progress.
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