Ryan Reynolds As Connor MacLeod?

Well, I’ve heard worse ideas.

According to Variety, the producers of Lionsgate’s intended reboot of that eighties cheese-fest, Highlander, want Reynolds to take the lead. Nothing is confirmed yet – both sides are “in talks and very interested in working together”.

Now I make no secret of my borderline man-crush on Reynolds. I’ve been a fan since his mid-nineties sitcom Two Guys, A Girl And A Pizza Place*, but I think this is an idea that might have to grow on me. The only role(s) I’ve seen him where he was playing against his trademark witty-but-a-bit-of-a-douche character was in The Nines alongside future-bridesmaid Melissa McCarthy. That was an uneven but interesting little indie noodle-scrambler involving three intertwining stories with the same cast playing different characters in each. The point of all this rambling is that, while Lambert’s MacLeod made the odd quip here and there, he was mostly pretty damn stoic and brooding. Of course it is possible the writers may go in a different direction with that aspect. Who better to appreciate the inherent humour in life than someone who has seen 500 years of it?

Highlander is probably the most retcon-happy franchise outside of comic books themselves so it is no real surprise that a reboot/reimagining/whatever is in the works. Also, Reynolds deserves another shot at an ongoing character since both Deadpool and Green Lantern appear to be dead in the water.

It’s not the worst photoshopped poster I’ve seen… (cough) Bangkok Dangerous (cough)

This story does raise three key questions for me though:

1. Who will play Ramirez? I suggest Robert Carlyle. Stick with tradition.
2. Who is big and ugly and nasty enough to be The Kurgan? Triple-H. Watch him and Reynolds beat seven shades of shit out of each other in Blade Trinity (if you can) then tell me I’m wrong.
3. And most important of all, will he go for the accent?

Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is already attached to direct, but even that may yet fall through. The Spaniard, writer/director of 28 Weeks Later, made one helluva splash back in 2003 with the international release of his debut Intacto, a sort of mystic thriller about a secret society that traded in luck. If you haven’t seen that one, you definitely should.

Source: Variety, via Collider.com

*Which, fact-fans, also starred the nerd-king himself, Mr Nathan Fillion.