Horror director to take on Highlander

by Beth Squires

Another day, another story about a remake - this time about Summit Entertainment’s reboot of ‘Highlander’.

‘28 Weeks Later’ director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has now signed up to direct, in the same week he was at the Toronto Film Festival premiere of his latest movie ‘Intruders’ - a psychological drama starring Clive Owen.

The screenplay has already been written by ‘Iron Man’ scribes Art Marcum and Matt Holloway, and Deadline reports that ‘Twilight Saga’ writer Melissa Rosenberg also had a hand in a later draft.

Neal H. Moritz and Peter Davis join Enrique Lopez Lavigne and Belen Atienza as producers, while the executive producers on the project are RCR Media Group’s Rui Costa Reis and Eliad Josephson.

Fresnadillo replaces ‘Fast Five’ helmer Justin Lin, who stepped down from directing this ‘Highlander’ re-imagining last month, though he’s staying on as an executive producer.

Lin has less swordfights and more car races coming up, as he’s signed up to direct the sixth installment of ‘The Fast and the Furious’, while Fresnadillo will start shooting ‘Highlander’ in the spring.

The original 1986 movie about an immortal Scottish warrior starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, and Sean Connery as Ramirez, his mentor, and spawned several less successful sequels. In 1992 there was also a popular TV series which ran for six years, starring Adrian Paul.

Could this be another franchise for Summit? Time will tell.