It is rather amusing to look back
at 1986’s Highlander and realise
that, in retrospect, the story
of a centuries-old immortal
successfully obtaining mortality
somehow managed to spawn a
slew of sequels and a television
series. Even so, the most unlikely
movie franchise since Friday The
13th is now on its fourth followup
with this year’s Highlander:
The Source – which also marks
the first time that the franchise
has had to operate without
movie mainstay Christopher
Lambert. Taking over from the
French thespian is none other
than Adrian Paul, who already
featured as Duncan MacLeod in
2000’s Highlander:
Endgame as well
as the television
series. SciFiNow
caught up with Paul
on the eve of his
latest feature’s UK
DVD release
What can fans expect from Highlander: The Source?
They can expect a really good story, some great characters within it and fantastic direction from Brett Leonard. It is set a few years in the future and, because of all the horrors that are happening on the planet, a ‘Source’ appears who has to attempt to undo all the wrong. We have great locations and everyone on this movie has been working their ass off. I can also tell you that the look of the film is beautiful. We shot the movie with the very highest quality HD and that gave us the ability to do things in post-production that you cannot do on 35mm. We went through a lot of camera and makeup tests before we began the shoot in order to make sure that what went on the screen would look amazing. I also went through a lot of rehearsals for the sword fights – just to get everything perfect.
What was the budget on the movie?
The budget was about $8 million.
And that is pretty good for a sequel aimed at the DVD market…
Yeah, but it’s not enormous by any manner of means (laughs). When you have a budget of $8 million it doesn’t mean that all of it shows up on screen. That’s one of the reasons we shot this film in Lithuania – you might only have a $4 million budget after you take away the overheads and everything, but the look of this film is much bigger than that. I can guarantee you.
Have the special effects been difficult to execute on the budget you have been given?
Well Brett knew everything that he wanted to do with this. He comes from a special effects background – he directed The Lawnmower Man, which was really ground-breaking at the time. We have whole cities burning in this movie – so if he wanted to blow up New York then that is a visual effect that he would sit down and carefully plan out. Brett told me that he was with the Wachowski Brothers when they were doing The Matrix and he talked about the way that they did everything in that movie. But Brett doesn’t like copying anyone so he has been trying to attempt things that have never been done on a film of this scale. I’m very excited to hear what the fans think of it.
This is the second Highlander movie for you and, of course, you starred in the television series too. Are you fed up with playing Duncan MacLeod yet?
Nah – it is like doing a play. When you are on stage every night you can do exactly the same character over and over again but, for me as an actor, what is really interesting is when you find another way of doing the role. So I am always trying to find some other element of the character’s life that has not have looked at before. So, yeah, I’ve done Duncan MacLeod for 15 years now but for The Source I went back and looked at his history and his point of view on things and came up with some new angles on the character. This movie is definitely darker than what we’ve done before so I had more to work with, but yeah, it was fun to play him again.
Are you finding it easier after all this time to master the Scottish accent?
I was born and raised in England but I have been practising accents since I was a child, and Scottish was one of them. You tend to do that in England – mainly to make fun of other people (laughs). I’m thinking of the Geordie and the Liverpool accent too. So Scottish was one of the accents that I already had in my arsenal. However, the hard thing was that when I first started playing MacLeod in the television series I gave him a much stronger accent. But, because the show was aimed at an American audience, I kept being told, “Well he’s been away for many hundreds of years and his accent will have changed. He goes through time – he’s arrived in America and after about 1850 I’m sure his accent will have died out.” The fans demanded it though and, because of that, they let me keep the Scottish accent. But I had to fight for that.
How was your experience of shooting in Lithuania?
Well it is very challenging because it is not a film community as yet. It is just beginning to have an industry over there so we had to bring in a lot of people from England. We had a multinational crew on this movie – people from Lithuania, Czechoslovakia, Australia, Canada, America… and that causes its own problems too (laughs). We had language barriers throughout the shoot but I think that everyone was keen to get on with it and make this into the best film possible.
What is the future of the Highlander franchise?
The Source is designed to be the first part of a new trilogy, although I do not know what they intend to do with the story after this. I believe that they are going to have a younger Highlander in the next film but nothing is certain yet. We have some ideas but it is too early to say anything. I am a producer on The Source and, even if I don’t continue to star in the series, I will probably remain behind-the-scenes. I think the series will still continue – I mean, this is the first one without Christopher Lambert. In this one we begin to explore a new Highlander universe.
Finally, and if you can pardon the bad pun, let’s say you could do ‘only one’ – either the Highlander television series or the movie franchise – which would it be?
I like doing the films a lot more and always have. I like playing a character, finding him and then walking away from it. It is interesting because they are two totally different mediums – television is one of these things where you get a regular pay cheque, which is always very nice (laughs), but sometimes I like being able to find a role, work on it and then walk away and do something else. I like that element of film – but I’m not saying I wouldn’t go back and do television again. The Highlander series was great fun.
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