Kind of Magic: Making the Original Highlander

The story of an immortal Scottish warrior battling evil down through the centuries, Highlander fused a high concept idea with the kinetic energy of a pop promo pioneer and Queen’s explosive soundtrack to become a cult classic. When two budget-conscious American producers took a chance on a college student’s script, they set in motion a chain of events involving an imploding British film studio, an experimental music video director still finding his filmmaking feet, a former James Bond with a spiraling salary, and the unexpected arrival of low-budget indie film company, Cannon Films. Author Jonathan Melville looks back at the creation of Highlander with the help of more than 60 new cast and crew interviews, including stars Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown, revisiting the grueling shoot that took them from the back alleys of London, to the far reaches of the Scottish Highlands and onto the mean streets of 1980s New York City. With exclusive writer commentary on unmade scripts, a fresh look at contemporary production material, never-before-seen photos from private collections, previously unpublished storyboards and artwork, a glimpse into the promotional campaign that never was, and a look at the ever-expanding franchise, A Kind of Magic is the book no Highlander fan can be without
Telling the story of an immortal Scottish warrior doomed to survive through the centuries while watching those he loves die around him, 1986’s Highlanderwas a British film that took the fantasy genre and infused it with a few thousand volts of energy from the rock video industry to create a timeless, genre-defying, classic.