We get an update on the new Highlander movie starring Henry Cavill from director Chad Stahelski who confirms when filming will start and teases the sword fighting that will be used in the film.
Stahelski is directing the Highlander reboot who is known for directing the four John Wick movies starring Keanu Reeves.
The budget is said to be north of a hundred million dollars, and Stahelski also recently said they have big plans to expand with Highlander spinoffs on TV and gave a nod to the popular Adrian Paul series.
Henry Cavill also recently appeared at CinemaCon teasing, “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
When does Highlander start filming?
Regarding when filming stars, Stahelski filled in Collider, “We start shooting in January in Scotland, that’s why I go right after I leave. I go to Scotland on Monday to do the final location scout.”
What about the sword fighting?
Stahelski compares the sword fighting we’ll see in Highlander to what they did with the fight scenes in the John Wick movies, which it sounds as if it will be more realistic. While the John Wick movies aren’t exactly true to life, for the most part (at least the first movie which is a lot more grounded), they come off as feeling a lot more real than some big over-the-top Hollywood movies:
“I’ll keep it to the core. Most audiences, I’ll use the gun analogy, most of what you know about gunfights or car chases, because most of us don’t get involved in gun fights, or car chases, or sword fights, we learn through movies. And what those movies show you is about 95% bullshit. You don’t fight 50 guys with your bare hands and then walk away, but it’s fun. It’s wish fulfillment. So John Wick, we know it’s a cartoon — I know it’s not — but we also have fun with it. But we do tactical reloads, we try to do fire manipulations, stuff like the professionals do, the military do. But then we have fun with it, you know? Sword work is very much the same.”
Stahelski says fans won’t be seeing goofy sword fighting like seen in other Hollywood movies:
“Most of our concerns now are not really about training cast. We’ve got that machine up and running, and I think we have the right cast. We have the right people. We have the right trainers. We’ve dug up some of the best sword people I’ve ever met in my life in the last six months, that are helping us. It’s more about how do you bring it all together and make it something. 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.”
The Highlander reboot doesn’t have a release date as of yet. The plot and the rest of the cast are to be announced.
