Lionsgate Dropped “Highlander” Over Cost?

After many years of trying to get it going, Chad Stahelski’s long-gestating reboot of 1980s cult classic “Highlander” finally began moving at Lionsgate a few years back.

From the casting of Henry Cavill, to scheduling the film around Stahelski’s “John Wick” franchise commitments, it all seemed to be going well with Lionsgate reportedly planning an entire screen universe for the franchise.

Last month came the news that Amazon MGM Studios’ United Artists was reportedly in final negotiations to acquire the project, and the full rights to the franchise, from Lionsgate.

Now, The Wrap has been in touch with sources close to the project and have gone into why Lionsgate let it go. It seems Stahelski reportedly wanted $180 million to relaunch “Highlander,” a number the studio balked at as they had limited their involvement to no higher than $165 million.

Amazon has no such qualms in terms of spending, but it does raise the obvious question as to why a film mostly about sword fighting and barren natural locations would cost so much.

Lionsgate executives were also reportedly worried about the property being too niche, one that only caters to Gen X males who are about the only ones who remember the original movies and subsequent TV series.

There was also concern about Cavill following the underperformance of Guy Ritchie’s well-received “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare,” and the costly disaster of Matthew Vaughn’s widely panned “Argylle”.

Concerns were there about being Cavill’s third costly underperformer, especially after the studio’s own series of high-profile bombs last year like “Borderlands” and “The Crow” reboot.

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