Movie buffs with an eye for adventure action films are sure to have spent considerable screen time watching the Hollywood fantasy flick Highlander. Directed by Russell Mulcahy, the movie released in 1986 was inspired by a true story by Gregory Widen. While you would have enjoyed the thrilling action in theatres or on TV, you probably wouldn’t have known some interesting facts about the film and it’s shooting.
Here are Some Fascinating Details of Highlander
- Christopher Lambert had to fine tune his English speaking skills within no time as the only other English film he had featured in earlier was the Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of Apes in 1984.
- How many know that Connery and Lambert struck a great chord with each other on the Highlander set, so much so that they addressed one another with their characters’ names. In fact in the sequel of the film, Lambert insisted Connery to feature.
- With the surmounting scheduling challenges, Sean Connery managed to have his scenes shot within a week.
- Sean Connery recorded his opening dialogue in a bathroom which was played to producers over the telephone. The producers approved of it as they couldn’t figure the quality of the record over a bad connection.
- The famous Freddy Mercury and team were initially meant to record a single song for the movie, but the footage of the movie inspired them to contribute more.
- The notable scene where Kurgan delivered his infamous dialogues was actually filmed in a real church. Interestingly, the character’s dialogues were considered blasphemous by the church priests present at the time of the shoot and had to be ad–libbed later.
- Clancy Brown had almost turned down the role when he discovered the requirement to wear make-up as he was allergic.
- Prior to having the Queen on board for the soundtracks, the Highlander crew considered other industry biggies like Sting, David Bowie and a few other musicians. If it were to fall in place likewise, the music could have sounded completely different.
- The scenes which involved sparkling swords were dangerous to shoot as the swords were tied to car battery terminals to generate the desired effect. Each time the blades touched one another, sparks were created making it a hazardous environment to shoot.
- Lambert worked hard on developing a specific accent required to suit his character in the Highlander and coached for a considerable time to deliver his dialogues with the perfect twang.
- The extras on the set of the film were paid a £10 bonus amount to manage their own rides to the shooting location. This also served as an advantage to make up for the number of horses required in the scenes.
- The film’s opening scene was initially scripted to showcase an ice hockey match but NHL turned it down as they felt that the original scene relayed the sport rather violently.
- Yes, the wrestlers featuring in the film’s opening wrestling match scene were real-time ring heroes!
- Did you know that the movie was screenwriter Widen’s class assignment which he scripted in his undergraduate days at UCLA? Later it was sold for $200,000.
- The Director of the movie appeared in a cameo in the film. The first person hit by Kurgan’s car in the film is none other than Russell himself.
- A restaurant roof was severely damaged in the course of production.
- Lambert, a French native himself dubbed in the language.
- The film involved shooting a stag that actually tried to escape the sets and was successful. The movie crew had to manage with footage from National Geographic.
- Highlander’s popularity seeped its way into sequels and animated TV series. The ‘franchise’ was not really planned but just happened with the overwhelming response it received from cult lovers.
- Much to its fame, the casino industry developer, Microgaming, designed the Highlander slot for the cult classic genre of gamblers. Playable on 5 reels with 243 winning combinations, this online slot features free spins, quickening wilds and offers payouts up to 3416x your stake on every spin.
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