Abramowitz on the script for the Highlander remake

[Andrew NDB]

From my conversation with Abramowitz at the Meet and Greet on Saturday. He's read an early draft of the remake and was willing to dish a little.

* It really is the first movie's story over again. Connor, Kurgan, Ramirez, all of that.

* It's a textbook "reimagining." He indicated a lot more emphasis is placed on the action on the page and not so much on the "heart," which he said if he ever got a chance to give a pass over it would be corrected. He acknowledged it's an early draft, is very optomistic, and that all of this will probably be corrected in future drafts.

* The movie does learn from the short-sightedness of the original movie in that there's no Prize-winning. However... there is a bit of the "Time of the Gathering" afoot, even if it's not The Gathering itself that happens in the movie. It's possible he was alluding to "The Gathering" actually being something entirely different in this remake than what you and I think the Gathering actually entails, or has entailed in the past.

* There's a ton more focus on the Kurgan in this. They want Mickey Rourke in this role and are kind of tailoring it a bit with him in mind. Apparently at the same time we get Connor's beginnings (again) we also are treated to the Kurgan's beginnings in the film. I asked if the film was kind of more of a personal battle over the ages with Connor and Kurgan and he said no, but just that in this take we get a ton more depth with the Kurgan and his motivations/character.

* The thing he actually liked best in the script is the entirely original/new characters it brings into things. He didn't elaborate on this end beyond really liking what he read.

* Beheadings, big Quickenings, none of this is f***ed with. And he did indicate the script he read is pretty well the antithesis of anything that could be PG-13ed for little kids.