Director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo has left Summit’s long in-development remake of the 1982 cult classic Highlander. Deadline is reporting the departure and saying that it was “amicable” even though Fresnadillo and Summit “could not get past the fact they had differing views of the film.” Ryan Reynolds is still attached to the film to plat the immortal title character who faces off against other immortals for the promise of a vaguely defined prize for the last one standing.
Fresnadillo took over the project for the studio from Justin Lin in September of last year, leaving Relativity’s planned remake of The Crow to do so.
The script for the film, which we reviewed here, is by Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway with subsequent drafts from Melissa Rosenberg and Noah Oppenheim.
Deadline states that the studio is remaining bullish on the project, but at some point I would assume that they will have to decide whether they have dumped too much in development costs into it to make it worth their while to continue.I have to wonder if the “creative differences” here were the casting of Reynolds, who doesn’t seem to carry the gravitas and the feeling of being far older than he looks to carry off the role.
In the meantime though, expect the studio to sign another director fairly quickly.
