Highlander: Endgame

News:

15 August, 2000

Check out my review of the script

12 August, 2000

Producer Bill Panzer and star Adrian Paul talked to Cinescape about the movie. Paul was clearly happy to take his character to the big screen. "I finally did Duncan MacLeod on the big screen. All of what he is and who he is is something I've worked on for a long time, and now I've got the chance to do it on the big screen."

Panzer talked a bit about the story. "There is a problem at the beginning of the picture. It's something that Connor has dealt with that Duncan doesn't know about," he says. "Duncan is seeking out what's happening and gradually it is revealed to him. They are together in the past in a number of different time periods. And then in the present, it all becomes revealed. So it is absolutely a Connor/Duncan relationship [story] with a great baddie."

Audiences should become pretty familiar with Bruce Payne, who plays the villain. He will also be appearing as the villain in the movie version of the game Dungeons & Dragons later this year. Panzer discusses that villain. "If revenge is a motive sometimes for those of us who only have one lifetime, imagine if it is a motive for somebody who is alive for 400 years," he says.

Expect a lot of action in the movie. "We didn't want it to be The Matrix in feel because Highlander's not The Matrix," Paul says. "But we wanted it to be slightly over the top. You are dealing with a fantasy-based idea and some things you have to make plausible, but [you should] also make them exciting at the same time. So, we were walking the fine line. We wanted to make sure that it looks a little bit more acrobatic or exciting than we had the time to do on the series. And I did a lot of training. I actually overtrained, I think. I went into gymnastics and did a lot of sword rehearsals."

Talk about it on the Forums

9 August, 2000

A new trailer is now available and I must say it's better than the first one. Also of interest is the official website which has just updated with some actual content.

• 4MB MOV Lo-Res
• 8MB MOV Med-Res
• 17MB MOV Hi-Res

17 July, 2000

The trailer has finally been released online so those of you who haven't caught it at a theater yet can do so at your leisure.

• 7.0MB MOV

   How does it look? Talk about it on the Forums

10 July, 2000

It looks like the release date is going to be September 1, 2000. Both the official site and trailer say so. Apparently the trailer is out there although I haven't seen it myself yet.

19 June, 2000

This barely qualifies as news but an official website has opened for the fourth Highlander movie. Don't get excited though. There's nothing there yet.

23 March, 2000

There was a recent Highlander convention in Denver, Colorado. Adrian Paul was in attendance and had some comments from the crowd. Below are two different reports from the event.

Movie news! We weren't shown what AP [a.k.a. Adrian Paul] said is not "the" trailer, but apparently this is the same clip that you saw at ShoWest a few weeks ago. AP said that there is not a release date yet. Apparently, there is still some second unit work to be done in Scotland. If the movie is not ready for release by October, it will probably be held until early next year so as not to compete with big-budget blowouts over the Christmas season.

The title is now Highlander: Endgame (not The Search for Connor, not A New Order, not World Without End, and most definitely not "Highlander 4". AP said that this is a sequel to the [TV] series and a sequel to the first movie, and that the movie's theme is "redemption." He also said, when asked, that if they were the last two Immortals, Duncan would *never* take Connor's head. Connor is his mentor, his teacher, his brother...he would lay down his sword and walk away. So, if Connor loses his head, as has been rumoured, apparently it will not be Duncan who does the deed.

From the clips, the movie has a bad guy who is supposed to be a really, really bad guy, not in a big hulking Kurgan way, but it seems in some sort of quasi-supernatural way. The bad guy, played by Bruce Payne (Jurgen from La Femme Nikita) is heard in the voiceover saying that he doesn't care about the Game, and doesn't care about the Rules. The voiceover says this bad guy is so bad that no man can face him alone... which leads us to a flashback of our two Highlanders meeting for the first time in 1625, as well as later flashbacks with both of them.

Methos and Joe were in one scene in this trailer, in a car with Duncan, with Joe saying something to the effect of "you have no idea what you're up against."

AP auctioned several movie items for charity, including a cast of his lower back and butt :) that was used in a stunt, and practice katanas used by himself and Christopher Lambert. Those items raised several thousand $ for charity.

Your Intrepid Girl Reporter,
Highlandgal

Next up is Spooky Mulder:

I just got back from Gathering 5, a Highlander convention in Denver, Colorado. Adrian Paul talked about "Highlander: Endgame," and showed the same teaser that was shown at ShoWest.

If he could sum up the film in one word, it's "redemption." Some guy at the Q&A asked him how he and Christopher Lambert recaptured the chemistry they shared when they last worked together seven years on the first episode of the TV series. Adrian's response, equal parts conviction and enthusiasm, was, "Wait until you see the movie!"

The teaser was AWESOME! Duncan MacLeod in action against several nasty looking opponents with lots of nasty looking weapons. One man with a katana against the world! We saw the first meeting of Connor and Duncan, some hot love scenes between Adrian Paul and "Endgame" leading lady Lisa Barbuscia, and all kinds of amazing swordfight shots. In addition to Duncan MacLeod and Connor MacLeod, the teaser also featured Joe Dawson (Jim Byrnes) and Methos (Peter Wingfield).

The main villain is played by Bruce Payne, who looks like the ultimate villain. Close cropped hair, two swords; the teaser calls him "The Ultimate Evil." Donnie Yen, who plays another of the villains, did this kick/spin/leap thing that defies the physics of human mobility. Between him and Adrian Paul, the action in this movie should blow the fans away. The fights have never looked better. Adrian Paul does things in the teaser that we've never seen him do on TV.

Most of the dialogue was drowned out my crazy applause from the audience. It was truly something to behold, and bodes very well for the movie.

Rock on,
Spooky Mulder

22 February, 2000

The official website updated the production status just a bit for us.

To All Our Highlander Fans!

Yes, the food might not be as good as in Romania, but the decision has been made to finish shooting this epic in London and Scotland commencing February 14th.

Approximately three weeks of first unit photography and two weeks of second unit photography to be shot. Impressive locations all around.

Assembled footage to date is terrific.

Peter Davis and Bill Panzer
February 17, 2000

You can also check out a review of the script over at AICN. It includes some spoilers and is pretty negative so be warned. A snippet of the review follows.

While reading the script, I kept thinking of a similar movie: Star Trek: Generations. Yep, it's one of those out-with-the-old, in-with-the-new types of movies where the older wiser character(s) shows the whipper-snapper a thing or two and then faces off against the bad guy only to get his ass kicked so the new guy can get super pissed and do what the old guy couldn't: Kick the bad guy's ass. The entire screenplay is packed with this passing of the torch motif that is becomes as predictable as paint-by-numbers.

5 January, 1999

The first pictures from the set have popped up and you'll be surprised at the source. The website for the WWF posted them. Eager to promote the appearance of their wrestler, The Edge, in the movie they have a small section on the movie. A number of shots appeared. Three are below. The rest are mostly variations on these three. There are even some short clips of the shooting.

29 December, 1999

This is all to be considered rumor at this point because there is no confirmation. First off it seems that the production may have been halted because the money has run out. SFX is also reporting that Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen had joined the production in Bucharest. He was perfect due to his experience with sword fighting. In the new Highlander movie, Yen will play the main villain. In the course of the story, Yen's character will (swipe your mouse to read the following) decapitate Connor MacLeod (Christpher Lambert)! Needless to say this could come as a major shock to fans of the series. Again let me stress that this is unconfirmed so don't freak out just yet.

29 November, 1999

The WWF wrestler 'Edge' will be appearing in the fourth Highlander sequel. He will be on set in Romania from December 1-8.

9 November, 1999

This might be the brightest spot of news related to a Highlander movie ever. Adrian Paul says that he wanted the movie to reflect the quality of the series instead of the movies. Smart guy that Paul. "We were very careful during the series regarding the progression of the character, the kind of story arcs that worked best, and the same kind of care was taken here." He will be the main star of the movie although it wiil also feature Christopher Lambert, star of the Highlander movies to date. Paul has been training hard for the film. "The last month and a half, it’s been six to nine hours of martial arts and sword training a day, and learning different weapons. Instead of just having immortals battle with two swords, we thought it would be more interesting to have them use styles and weapons from different cultures around the world."

14 September, 1999

Production wil begin shortly. Shooting will start October 11th in Romania. Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul, stars of the Highlander movies and TV show respectively will both be in it. Doug Arnowkowski will be the director. The script is by Eric Bernt and Gregory Widen and William N. Panzer and Patrick Peach will produce. Production design is courtesy of Jonathon Carlson.

24 August, 1999

Finally we have some plot detail on the much anticipated (right?) fourth Highlander film. An extremely powerful and ancient immortal has conned a younger group of immortals into believing that he is the origin of their resurrection. As a result, they are willing to do anything for him. Connor and Duncan team up to try and put a stop to this guy. Connor finds out that Duncan has been hiding something from him causing a rift in their partnership. There is also a woman immortal in the new group that discovers her real origin and then has to sort out how she feels about that. Got all that? Me either. Actually it sounds better than the last couple of Highlander movies at least as far as plot idea. Maybe it won't be the worst thing to ever grace the big screen. It'll probably merely float near the bottom.

23 August, 1999

For some unknown reason, the Highlander movie franchise is continuing. Despite descending in quality from the original almost watchable picture, they keep pressing forward. Doug Aarniokoski has been signed to direct the fourth movie. This will be his first directorial job. He has previously worked on Trancers III, Four Rooms, and The Faculty among other movies.

2 June, 1999
The official website says that Peter Wingfield's character Methos is rumored to be in the movie. Rumored? This is an official website, shouldn't they know?

18 May, 1999

The original wasn't bad, the second was one of the worst movies I've ever seen, and the third made the second look like Citizen Kane. Which of course means I'm thrilled to announce that there will be a fourth Highlander flick. Highlander: World Without End (more appropriately franchise without end) will be released by Dimension Films and production should begin this fall. Locations will include Ireland, Isle of Man, Paris, New York and Toronto. Christopher Lambert will return as always, with Adrian Paul as well. Thanks to the Highlander official website.