The Newest Highlander Continues the Immortal Legacy,

Quoth The Raven.

"Realms of Fantasy" (ISSN 1071-1951) page 34, Volume 5, Number 2 December 1998 edition published bi-monthly by Sovereign Media Co., Inc., 11305 Sunset Hills Rd., Reston, VA 20190 (703) 471-1556 which sells for $3.99 in the US and $4.99 in Canada.

The new show features 1,200-year-old immortal con artist and thief Amanda (played by former Miss America Elizabeth Gracen), the longtime on-again/off-again lover of Duncan MacLeod. MacLeod passes her the sword and she finds herself teamed up with an ex-cop named Nick Wolfe (Paul Johansson) as they fight together against injustice. The international production, headed by Gaumont Studios, will be filmed in Toronto and Paris.

"We knew that Highlander and the Adrian Paul epoch was coming to a close," says executive producer Marla Ginsburg., "There’s only so many years you can pretend you’re immortal before you get humanly tired. And so we started talking about how we could spin off the Highlander, [sic] because we have a very loyal audience, we love making it, and it’s been a great series. We didn’t want to stop and there seemed to be an interest in the marketplace as well, for the series. So what we did was start looking at it, and I felt very strongly that it would be a good idea to have a female Immortal like Amanda, who might take his place, because to me, to replace Adrian with any other may would be to make it Highlander but without Adrian and that would be a shame. But to make it a woman very much changed the nature of it. So that’s what we did."

The idea of a strong female heroine was nothing new to the producer. "We had just finished putting together the package on [La Femme] Nikita, which Gaumont was involved in packaging," says Ginsburg, "and I felt like, you know, it’s the time of the strong woman."

Gracen was a natural choice to build the series around, according to Ginsburg. "We’ve always loved the character of Amanda since Elizabeth first walked on our set, and it was really an appropriate way to go."

Did Ginsburg consult Highlander’s considerable fan base in making any decisions? "I really respect and appreciate our fans, but I believe in my own personal creative judgment," she says, "and while I knew Elizabeth had a high response among the fan base, I also knew they might be upset without it having Adrian. So I think the smartest thing you can do in this case is just trust your own judgment. The fact that the fans love Elizabeth is a plus."

   Paul Johansson, a veteran of film and television (along with some sexy Diet Coke commercials) had never appeared on Highlander before. "Paul came to us by our casting director," says Ginsburg. "We were looking for a man who was somebody that we believed could provide a sound and stable relationship, and we also wanted to take the Highlander away from being a single star-driven series to a duo. And we felt that Paul had the combination of strong masculinity and yet was sort of sensitive – he kind of had it all. We liked him both as a person and as a performer to be the complement to her character."

Regarding the locations for shooting, Ginsburg says, "Paris has just been great. I mean, we’ve done it in the past, and I live here, so it’s fun for me to be able to be home and do my work. [Toronto] has a good film infrastructure, and it serves as the co-production; we like the partners, it’s a metropolitan city that looks fairly neutral so you don’t necessarily feel you’re in Canada. There were a lot of reasons for [the locations]: partly creative and partly financial."

Do the different locations make for any difficulties for the stars of the show? "You’d have to ask them," says Ginsburg, "but my hunch is that they like changing locations – it makes it more interesting. The ideal thing is to be able to work and be at home, but since this series isn’t going to allow them to be in LA, nobody gets too upset about spending some time in Paris."

Ginsburg admits to not having attended any of the Highlander conventions. "Bill [Panzer, co-executive producer] is more the convention guy," she notes. "I kind of isolate my activities to the creative, and the production of the series. Bill really listens to the fans a lot. I try not to, because I think someone needs to have a pure perspective, and so I’m of the one [sic] who stands outside the fan base. I don’t check what people are saying, and I don’t go to the Web site. I’m aware of it and I care deeply what it says, but I think one of the assets I bring to the show is a certain perspective. When you listen to the fans a lot, or when you go to the Web site a lot, it’s sort of like trying to please a lover. You try to give them what they want, and that’s a really important role, but I also think somebody needs to stand outside the process and say, ‘You know what? I’m not a part of that, but here’s what I think.’ It’s a pure objective creativity that comes from no other bias but my own personal one. I think it’s part of what gave us the courage to have a female Immortal, and in the beginning that was not a popular idea, but it was something I really fought for because I believed in it and I didn’t care what anyone else thought. I think there have been times that that has served a purpose and there have been other times that I’ve had no idea what I was talking about, and I was completely wrong. But I think there have been times where that sort of distant observation that I’m able to lend by not being too wrapped up in that stuff has been good.

"I remember when I first went to see Bill Panzer in Canada about doing the series, and I was pregnant, and I never knew whether or not he just said yes so I wouldn’t break my water, or because he liked it, but I had a real vision for the series, and I really wanted to do it. I recently had occasion to go back and look at what I originally wrote and it was exciting to see that those few pages I had given him so many years ago really still pertained."

The current slate of episodes, according to Ginsgurg, is 20 instead of the usual 22. As for why, she says with a laugh, "You know, it beats the hell out of me. It’s sort of a combination between the broadcasters, the distributors, and the financier and I think a lot has to do with cash flow."

Ginsburg says that she loves the syndicated market. "Everyone tells me what a terrible market it is, but I’ve been in it – this will be year number eight, and I don’t know what they are talking about. We’ve got a wonderful distributor behind us with Rysher. We’ve been with Rysher since they were a teeny, tiny company that nobody knew. Rysher’s been with Gaumont and Highlander since nobody could pronounce Gaumont and didn’t know who we were. We’re two companies who really launched ourselves into the marketplace together, and we’re very proud of and loyal to that relationship. [sic]

Ginsburg says that as a producer, the biggest challenge in working on Highlander is "jet lag. I work between Toronto, LA, and Paris, so I’m often up at three in the morning working. The other big problem is juggling a lot of diverse personalities with me in the middle as the messenger, which means I often get shot. And it hurts sometimes. That’s difficult. I’d say always finding the energy to be fresh each year. It’s a challenge to always be able to approach something that you’ve done year in and year out with a freshness...we work with a really great group o people and that keeps you moving forward. But the French are French, the Germans are Germans, and the Americans are Americans, and there’s a reason why we’re not all called ‘people on the planet.’ We are different, and I’m the person who’s been vested with the responsibility of getting all these people to agree or agree to disagree and share that point of view with the creative staff."

The balancing factor that makes it worthwhile, Ginburg says, is "success. I love it that people love the show. I mean, there’s nothing greater, when you’re in a creative business, I don’t think, than imagining something, trying to get it done, finding a way to do it, and then people actually like it. That’s a kick. It’s not like we go to CBS and they give me $850,000 or a million dollars and I go make a TV show and Warner Bros. distributes it. I’ve got to raise every penny. I’m the person who is responsible for doing that and it’s hard. I’m on planes a lot, and I’m the mother of two small children, which makes it really hard. But on the other hand, it’s really exciting to be working on something people love. And people seem to really love this thing. What greater reward is there? Except maybe a house on the Riviera!"

In closing, Ginsburg stresses that Highlander is, above all, a team effort. "A huge amount of thinking and blood, sweat, and tears go into making it good, and the people who do this show really do have a passion that I have never seen on any other show that I’ve worked on. [Head writer] David Abromowitz and Bill Panzer put in incredible hours, painstakingly reviewing everything that goes into the show. There’s something like a hundred people who bring it to the screen and it’s easy to give the credit to Paul and Elizabeth, but there’s also the writing staff and everyone down to the catering. The Highlander team stayed together for years, and I hope the Raven team will, as well. The fact that the fans love it is the reward. It really is a pleasure because, much like Star Trek, it’s really found a place in cult fiction."