It seems that Hollywood truly can not leave well enough alone.

The original Highlander movie was released in 1986 and went on to spawn some very lackluster sequels and a passable television series, but there is no question of the undying love many people have for the original film.  Whether you were first exposed to the United States or European edit (the European edit is sometimes called “the directors cut” and features far more back story), there was something unique and different about this film.

If you aren’t familiar with it, well, shame on you, but we’ll catch you up.  There is a group of immortal beings hiding amongst us that are destined to fight until only one of them remains.  How can there be only one remaining if they are immortal?  Simple, they have to chop off each other’s heads.  Armed with swords, these people have fought through out history, waiting for the time of “the Gathering”: a time when they will all be drawn to a specific spot and the final few immortals will fight each other, and the last one standing will win the prize, which is infinite knowledge.

The original movie starred Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, a man from the highlands of Scotland who became aware of his destiny in 1592 (if I remember correctly).  See, the immortals are not aware of their nature until they die for the very first time, and are thus resurrected.  So, Connor gets killed off by the film’s villain, the Kurgen, played by Clancy Brown, but he doesn’t get to finish the job due to a battle going on.  Connor is quickly taken under the wing of Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez played by Sean Connery, and thus a classic of 1980’s sci-fi/fantasy is born.

People don’t just love this movie, they LOVE this movie.  Good acting, great concept, wonderful action, it really was the complete package.

Well, leave it to Hollywood to want to taint our memories of it.

According to IO9, Summit Entertainment is planning to “reboot” the series with the help of Matt Holloway and Art Marcum, two of the writers for Iron Man.  The director is said to be Justin Lin who is best known for The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Fast & Furious.  While the writers aren’t horrible, the choice of director makes me worry about how “flashy” this film will be.  The original was very subdued in its tones and color palette, which was perfect for the settings and story.

There was something very special about the original film, even down to the choice of rock super group Queen doing the entire soundtrack, and the likelihood of capturing the lightening in a bottle a second time is slim to none.  Just leave well enough alone, dammit, it was fine the way it was!