“I hated the script, we all hated it”: The sequel to this famous fantasy film was such a disaster that its director even wanted to remove his name from the poster.

“I hated the script, we all hated it”: The sequel to this famous fantasy film was such a disaster that its director even wanted to remove his name from the poster.

Whether it soars at the box office or flops at the door, a film’s fortunes don’t always come from how it performs after its theatrical release. Its fate can also be realized during two preliminary stages, no less important.

The first is test screenings. A moment of legitimate stress for the studio and the film crew, depending on the director, the test screening can also turn into a nightmare and a disaster; There are many examples of this.

This led to famous moments of tension between the director, who would sometimes take the work away, impose or do it behind his back, a completely limited artistic vision, resulting in a completely distorted work. Sometimes, in the end, a heavy economic sanction in the form of a big commercial failure in theaters. We have dedicated this topic.

The second is the (earlier) premieres of the films. Moments that, at least on paper, should be moments of celebration, where the film team, the lead director, reveals to the public his artistic vision, sometimes hard-won.

But these moments are not always a peaceful sequence. They can turn out to be absolutely devastating, seriously hampering careers in theatres…

“If I was in this stupid movie, I might go crazy!”

Designed almost like a huge MTV clip lasting almost 2 hours with Queen’s music that has aged quite a bit (the film, not the music), 1986’s Highlander allowed Australian director Russell Mulcahy to gain international fame. Four years later, the continuation of the (non)adventures of these immortal warriors played by Christophe Lambert and Sean Connery seems to have only made people miserable…

“I hated that script. We all hated it. Me, Sean, Chris, we just did it for the money. The case says it was written by a 13-year-old boy. But I didn’t “I’ve never acted. Barbarian Warrior before, and this was one of my first major villain roles, I figured if I’m in this stupid movie, I might as well have fun and die.” Frankly, years later, actor Michael Ironside, who plays a character in a movie called “General Katana,” said.

and add: “All those eyes rolling and moaning and winking on the screen, I decided that if I was going to be in something stupid like this movie, I was going to be the most memorable one, and I think I succeeded. .”

Hell of a shoot for Mulcahy

With multiple rewrites of the script, filming and very problematic financial problems in Argentina, Which forces the insurance company to take back creative control of the filmChristophe Lambert completely losing bad investments, Sean Connery coming to pick up a check for a short week of filming, editing in hell… you can’t say this Highlander II adventure was a disaster. and full shipwreck.

So much so that Mulcahy tried to remove his name from the film’s credits, but was denied. sample? He was not a member of the Directors Guild of America. In fact, he couldn’t get the insurance company that foreclosed on the film to remove his name from the poster…

Review, final blow

The final blow to the already seriously damaged film came at the premiere of the film. The public did not like the cinematic nonsense either. Mulcahy, on the other hand, left the screening of his own film after 15 minutes and did not appear again. Christophe Lambert threatened to do the same.

A few years later, Mulcahy made his best move: he was once again invited to the editing table to shoot a director’s work called Highlander II – Renegade Version. He also recalled several actors from the film to film additional scenes and re-dub the old ones. While the result is undeniably better than the first version of the 1991 film, unfortunately that doesn’t make it a memorable film either…

Source: Allocine

You may also like