Forty years after its theatrical debut, Highlander fandom finally has a lavish new artbook detailing the making of the cult classic that launched a franchise. As compiled by Jonathan Melville, the hefty hardcover features a bevy of stills, detailed descriptions of deleted scenes, and interviews with the cast and crew. It’s everything a fan could possibly want, arriving in stores on September 1st for optimal Christmas-wish-list placement.
Buy The Art & Making of HighlanderI saw the film during its original theatrical run and thought I remembered it fairly well, so was surprised to find sections in the book covering scenes I had completely forgotten, including flashbacks to the American Revolution and World War II. Diving even deeper, the book is packed with stills from sequences that were filmed but didn’t make the final cut, including an alternate bedroom scene with co-star Roxanne Hart that she claims the producers didn’t like because she was wearing a shirt. Other scenes detailed with stills include a different American Revolution setting, an ‘80s go-go bar scene expanding the friendship between fellow Highlanders Macleod and Kastagir, and an ‘80s showdown between evil Highlander Kurgan and a katana-wielding security guard. Each scene includes a detailed text description as well as cast and crew quotes, offering fascinating perspective on what might have been.
In addition to the scene breakdowns, the book includes in-depth looks at the costumes, weapons, and music by both Queen and composer Michael Kamen, even going so far as to include stills and descriptions of Queen’s music video shoot with star Christopher Lambert helmed by the film’s director, Russell Mulcahy. Melville draws the line at the first film though, only mentioning the sequels and TV series in passing. Even for the ultimate Highlander fans, there’s a wealth of largely unknown information revealed within the book, including the revelation that box-office draw Sean Connery only worked on the film for a week. It’s interesting to see an old film retroactively given the hyperdetailed treatment of a modern sci-fi production, drawing to mind just how precious little information early fans had to go on aside from trailers and print ads.
The oversized hardcover arrives at whopping 10” x 13” dimensions with 192 glossy color pages. Masterfully reproduced stills are blown up as large as double-page spreads at times, revealing exquisite details with superb color reproduction. Fans expecting a typical artbook may be somewhat surprised by the fairly low amount of typical set tours, costume drawings, or storyboards, but the “Making of” portion of the title makes up for it with a massive assortment of stills, production details, and quotes from the cast and crew. It’s a high-quality, sturdy publication guaranteed to stand the test of time as well as a Highlander.
