Highlander turns 40. Russell Mulcahy's 1986 sword-and-sorcery film, starring Christopher Lambert as an immortal Scotsman killing his way toward singularity, outlasted two direct sequels, two TV series, and a reboot that has been stalled in Hollywood since 2008.
The origin story is worth the read: Gregory Widen wrote the first draft as a UCLA screenwriting student, drawing from Ridley Scott's 1977 film The Duelists and his own visits to Scottish castles and the Tower of London's armor collection. He sold that draft, then titled Shadow Clan, for $200,000.
The full piece goes beyond the production history. It digs into why the original holds up when everything built on top of it collapsed, and what 40 years of failed franchise attempts says about the thing that made the first film work.
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