Highlander III: The Sorcerer

Highlander III: The Sorcerer (1994)

Centuries ago one man was chosen to protect all that is good. But an enemy from the past has traveled through time to challenge him in the present.

Deceived that he had won the Prize, Connor MacLeod wanders through the world; however, he is awakened from his peaceful life when an entombed immortal magician, Kane, escapes and comes seeking the Highlander.

Date of release
1994-11-29
TMDB
4.8 / 10 (580)
Runtime
1h 39m
Genres
Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Director
Andrew Morahan
Collection
Highlander Collection

Casting

Interesting facts

  • Budget: $26M
  • Filmed in: New York City, Montreal, Japan, and Morocco

Highlander III: The Sorcerer is a 1994 action-adventure fantasy film and the third installment in the Highlander film series. Set as an alternate sequel to the original film, it is the final Highlander film to focus on Connor MacLeod as the protagonist. In the film, Connor MacLeod is forced to face a new, dangerous enemy, a powerful sorcerer known as Kane who threatens to win the fabled "Prize" in order to gain world domination by eliminating MacLeod. It grossed $36.7 million worldwide, becoming the highest grossing film in the franchise, as well as the only one to recover its budget at the box office.

Production

Director Russell Mulcahy who directed prior installments Highlander and Highlander II: The Quickening was initially slated to return as director, but withdrew when the producers did not commit his $1.2 million pay into escrow. Davis-Panzer Productions responded by initiating a lawsuit against Mulcahy seeking $8.3 million in compensatory damages for reneging on an oral agreement with the producers.

The film completely ignores and contradicts the events of Highlander II: The Quickening. The movie specifically states that Brenda Wyatt died in a car crash in 1987 and shows a version of 1994 where Earth's ozone layer is intact, whereas Highlander II depicts the ozone layer as being largely gone by 1994, causing many deaths by cancer and radiation poisoning, including Brenda's.

In a 1996 Cinefantastique interview, Highlander producer William Panzer mentioned that several references to the TV series' continuity were inserted into this film as a means of linking it to the TV universe.

Many of the locations in Scotland from the original film were revisited for this sequel. Several scenes were shot in the province of Quebec in Canada: the medieval Japanese village and the building in which Nakano's cave is found were shot near Montreal. Many sequences in New York were actually shot in Montreal, as well. Other scenes for this film were shot in Morocco.

The U.S. theatrical release was rated PG-13, and a slightly-longer R-rated Special Director's Cut was later released on home video with two sex scenes trimmed from the theatrical release restored. On top of this, additional violence was reinstated, mainly the shot of Kane's head rolling off.

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