There was once a rumor that director Justin Lin may have been interested in getting involved in rebooting the Highlander franchise, and directing a new film to kick things off. There was some definite speculation, and fan fantasies about how he may be able to resuscitate that franchise and bring it profitability similar to his handiwork with the Fast and Furious franchise. Turns out that directing the resuscitation immortals won’t be in his future at all as today we learn that he’s backed away from the project.
Source: THR
Justin Lin is no longer directing Highlander, Summit’s remake of the 1986 movie.
The studio acquired the rights to remake the film in May 2008 and Lin became attached as the director in September 2009. This past spring, however, Lin’s career went into overdrive after the success of Fast Five, and his dance card began filling up with not only a sixth installment of the Universal franchise but also with such as projects as a potential new Terminator movie.
The new timetable didn’t sync up with Summit’s desire to move sooner rather than later on Highlander, and last week Lin opted to step aside. He will, however, be involved with the project as exec producer.
This isn’t too surprising as I was beginning to wonder how he would manage working on so many projects myself. Not everyone can pull a Del Toro, and he’s decided to pace himself before he drives himself to mountains of madness too. Either way, I like the idea of him focusing on the Fast franchise, and I’m mildly interested in his ideas for another Terminator movie. We’ll see how this turns out soon enough as he’s re-affirmed his commitment to another Fast movie and has already filmed an intricate 12 minute sequence.
