Rewrite the best movie ever? How? Why?

I'm referring, of course, to the original Highlander movie--the one that started it all. And yes, there are plans of doing the 1986 classic cult movie over again. Needless to say, I'm of two minds about it. I'm fearful that it will be so removed from what made the original so cool that it's some unrecognizable thing. (But then, have I not watched all the sequels? And the series? And The Raven? But I have drawn the line at cartoons.)

There's something so poetic and rich and at the same time peculiar about it, after all. Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) sounds a little French. The Egyptian-Spaniard played by Connery obviously sounds like a true Scot. It takes place in the past as much as in the present, describing an entire undeworld of Immortal kind and their fight for one another's Quickenings, describing a Game, and the Rules, and presenting us with the winner. It was contained--the rest of the franchise was built around it, but not necessarily promised by it. It was contained--the rest of the franchise was built around it, but not necessarily promised by it. It had a great love story, action, and a tremendously awful villian in Clancy Brown's Kurgan.

And of course the soundtrack was teh awesome--Queen, man!

But on the other hand, just because I liked the heck out of this movie does not mean I wouldn't be really interested to see how it could be updated, and if something different could be done. Maybe if there was more backstory and a little more expansion of the idea. Maybe if they found a way to reconcile the self-contained movie (here, they should tread carefully) with the later sequels and the series--the broader Highlander canon. Very challenging, but very cool if they could pull it off.

Here's a Youtube tribute which reminds me of a lot of what's best about the original, and what they better not lose: