Highlander (1 Viewer)

[joshEH]

Quite the opposite, actually, as the only film that doesn't exist in the unified continuity is Highlander 2 (and even portions of that movie have been made canonical -- the "memorabilia flashbacks" depicting Connor aboard the H.M.S. Rosemary, his Yalie football experiences, et cetera).

Highlander: The Final Dimension has been officially confirmed by Davis and Panzer to exist within the TV series' timeline during the early third season; around the time when Duncan was confronting Axel and Kern, Connor was resolving the whole Kane-problem thing in NYC and elsewhere. Additionally, they planted several confirmed "stealth references" to the Highlander: The Series continuity within the film, such as Detective Stenn's description of Connor and Brenda's Scotland car wreck -- she "was killed instantly," but he walked away without so much as a scratch on him.

Highlander IV and V are obviously designed with the TV series backstory directly in mind, so there's little difficulty there, but again, the only real disconnected entry in the series is the second film.

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

Where's the website on this? I gave up awhile ago, but it seems to me at the end of Highlander, there were no more immortals left. H2 tried to say they came from another planet, so there could be more brought in. H3 tried to say there were more, but they were in a deep sleep. You know... a sleep so deep that whatever mystical force bestows the ultimate quickening was actually confused. And let's not forget that if the series runs concurrently with subsequent Highlander movie sequels, that menas Connor also existed at the end of Highlander (the movie). As I said, I gave up a long time ago (around the time of Highlander 2, though I did watch the Renegade Edition), but if you can make sense of all that, I'd love to read it.

 

[Sami Kallio]

I don't care for the sequals and I don't care for the TV series either but I can't wait for the original in HD. One of my all time favourites.

 

[Will_B]

Mikah, it is really straightfoward. There are two Highlander universes with slightly different timelines.

Highlander: The Series universe is the universe created for the tv series: It includes
-all the seasons of the television series, and
-the movies Highlander IV: Endgame, and
-the upcoming Highlander V: The Source.
In this world there are still lots of immies around, including Duncan MacLeod. FYI, at some point in the series they mention (verbally) that Duncan's friend Connor once fought and won a fight with an extremely powerful immortal in New York. So their history references the battle we saw in Highlander 1, but it was not exactly the same battle - it was not the end battle of the last two immortals (obviously).

The original Highlander movie universe contained the films
-Highlander 1
-see footnote about Highlander 2
-Highlander 3
There may have been some nods to the tv show in Highlander 3, but to make it simple think of Highlander 1 and Highlander 3 as being in the original Highlander movie universe.

Footnote: The film Highlander 2 was disavowed and does not take place in either Highlander universe.

 

[Stan Rozenfeld]

I didn't like the original Highlander, or any of the sequels, except for director's cut of Endgame. I liked the series, especially from Season 3 on. I am really looking forward to these films, and hope they do justice to the concept, and tell us a few 'secrets of the immortals'.

Stan

 

[joshEH]

Davis and Panzer have confirmed that Highlander 3 does officially take place within the TV series' universe, accounting for some of what Connor was up to after leaving Duncan, Tessa, and Richie in the first episode. In fact, there are multiple Highlander continuua, depending upon how one approaches it, and one's general druthers:

Universe #1:

• Highlander (begins and ends with this film, and Connor obtaining the Prize from the Kurgan)

Universe #2:

• Highlander
• Highlander 2: The Quickening

Universe #3:

• Highlander
• Highlander: The Final Dimension/The Sorceror

Universe #4:

• Highlander
• Highlander: The Series
• Highlander: The Raven
• Highlander: The Final Dimension/The Sorceror
• Highlander: Endgame
• Highlander: The Source

 

[Mikah Cerucco]

I accept Universe #1.

I know Universe #2 and consider it lame.

I know Universe #3 and consider it lame as well. There were more immortals, but they were buried/sleep? Thus, whatever mystical force associated with the quickening was fooled?

I really don't get how Universe #4 could work given that there are no more immortals at the end of "Highlander" the movie. I don't recall the series doing anything to explain that away (I only saw the pilot).

I like the Highlander concept, so I just basically ignore my issues, but I've seen nothing since the original that "fits" the original's story. I think everything else should have been prequels and it would have made more sense.

 

[Lew Crippen]

All pretty funny for a show with the theme; In the end there can be only one!

 

[joshEH]

To be sure, nothing produced since the original 1986 film has ever satisfactorily reconciled its supposed "final" Gathering with the events depicted in the later productions (except for -- quite ironically -- Highlander 2), but this isn't a major issue so long as one simply overlooks one or two tiny details.

As Ramirez would say..."Accept it."

 

[Jamie.G]

I was never a big fan of the series. In fact I could barely sit through any of the episodes. Adrian Paul seems like a cool guy but his highlander just isn't very good. His movies are even worse. They should have killed the series after the second terrible movie (the first will always be a classic though... fortunately I have an HD .ts version of it that I can always watch without weird directors cuts etc)

 

[Will_B]

Looks like they're finishing the score for Highlander: The Source. This via Queenzone.com:

 

[KevinGress]

I agree with this post. I love the Highlander concept and love the first movie and series (I tolerate the others) so I can ignore the glaring issues. Heck, sometimes I even entertain myself with coming up with explainations of said glaring issues. That said, I have to second Mikah's disbelief of universe #4. It just can't happen. The main reason being that Connor became "the one" at the end of the first, but little things like Connor being able to breathe underwater, whereas in the series, immortals drown (until fished out). It's easier and more logical to accept that the end of the first movie is where the timeline between the Lambert movies and the Paul series/movies diverged.

I'm hoping that the upcoming movie will provide some good drama (without plot holes) along with some very good action.

 

[Will_B]

More Highlander: The Source news, courtesy of http://adrianpaul.net/current/holiday2006.htm


And more on the music, via www.highlanderworldwide.com

“Who Wants to Live Forever?” and “Princes of the Universe” have been re-recorded for "The Source" by John Sloman on vocals, Chris Cawte, arranger and guitars, and producer Graham Walker.

 

[Will_B]

Um...as a fan of Highlander the Series (as one who even liked Highlander Endgame quite a bit!), I am sorry to hear the reports (that are all over the net) that the latest Highlander film is a disaster.

Evidently the rough cut of Highlander: The Source (http://adrianpaul.net/movies/source.html) was released -- legitimately* -- in Russia, but it is so bad that the producers have no intention of unleashing this version on the English-speaking world. A revised version of the film will be released later this year in the US, but people who have seen the rough cut are speculating that there's no way it can be saved.

Though I'd like to blame the problems on putting the actors and everyone on the crew through the utter hell of filming in the subzero climate of the Baltics, that doesn't excuse the story, which was presumably written at room temperature.

Reviews of the rough cut:

http://www.beyondhollywood.com/?p=1540

http://lonelamb.livejournal.com/2436.html

http://thornflower.livejournal.com/184908.html

*I say the Russian release is legit because of the sequence of events: First the producers stated many months ago that the international sales of the film were good. Then the Russian version came out on retail DVD. Then producers issued a statement saying it isn't their final vision of the film, but, that is not to say that they did not sell this early version to help settle their debts. Their statement:

 

[Edwin-S]

It sounds bad. It doesn't even look like it has any relationship to the TV series ...other than the main lead. It is too bad, because the TV series really wasn't a bad reworking of the concept.

 

[Brian D H]

Which is surprising since Adrian Paul was the Executive Producer.
________

Sounds really bad.

I've been a Highlander fan through all incarnations (except #2). I loved the series and I even liked Raven (well, a little). I had been having high hopes for this and even considered ordering the Russian DVD --- oh, well.

Question:
I've read up on the making of 'The Source' and the reviews and I can't find the answer to this: Is there even ONE historical flashback? If not, how can they even call it Highlander without one? (By 'historical flashback' I mean flashing back to a period before the viewing audience was born) After all, even Highlander 2 had flashbacks (shudder).

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

Aside from Duncan's flashbacks with him and his mortal wife which is in current time only... there is one that shows the origin of The Guardian (of The Source) and that is it really. Any changes between this Russian version and the one released in September (date may change) will probably only be similar to that of the theatrical version and the producer's cut of Endgame.

 

[Ferdinand Hudson]

Aside from Duncan (Adrian Paul) other characters from the series include Methos and the Watcher Joe Dawson. References to other characters in the series and movies are mentioned as well. Other than that it has very little that says Highlander except for some head chopping (and only one Quickening...).

 

[joshEH]

Some more recent news:

Apparently the "final shooting draft" (supposedly written by TV series exec-producer David Abramowitz) was NOT, in fact, done by him -- Davis and Panzer reportedly brought in two unknown writers (read: "non-Guild scabs") behind the crew's back to do "tweaking" on the screenplay, all the while publicly trumpeting Abramowitz's work on the film to fandom as the "real" representation.

The cat only even got let out of the bag when screenwriter Peter Briggs (who did two early drafts of the film, and who posts on the official Highlander boards) filed a screen-credit arbitration claim with the WGA, who revealed that Davis/Panzer had brought the two additional hacks onboard after shooting had already begun, and Abramowitz's work completed.

Guess we'll see where this goes, but ever since word leaked out that Abramowitz's work has gotten redone by others...I dunno. I had higher hopes for the picture during this last year-and-a-half. At this point, I'm skeptical.

 

[Vlad D]

I'm really disappointed. I'm a big fan of the first movie and of the series, and had hopes for this one. Oh well.