Highlander 30th anniversary screening at EIFF

There can be only one Highlander (plus four sequels, a TV spin off and an upcoming reboot). The 1986 action fantasy starring Christopher Lambert as immortal Scottish warrior Connor MacLeod will make a glorious return to Scotland at this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival to mark the cult film's 30th anniversary.

On 18 June, EIFF will premiere a new 4K digital print of Russell Mulcahy’s film, which spans from Highland clan rivalries in the 16^th century to the mean streets of 80s New York. Some of its stars will be in attendance, including Clancy Brown, who gave an intense performance as The Kurgan, MacLeod's fellow immortal and mortal enemy. “It’s taken a while,” says Brown, “but I swore to myself that I would return again to Scotland after filming Highlander 30 years ago where I first learned of Robert the Bruce, James Macpherson, The Fortingall Yew and, most blissfully, single-malt scotch whisky."

Might Christopher Lambert make an appearance too? The Frenchman has another reason to be in town: he stars in Luc Besson’s Subway, which is part of the festival’s cinéma du look retrospective.

Fans will also have their fingers crossed that local boy Sean Connery might make the red carpet for Highlander's anniversary screening. In the film, the Bond star and former patron of EIFF plays the charming and flamboyant Spanish nobleman Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramírez, who shows MacLeod the rules of the immortals’ game. With Connery’s son, Jason, opening the festival with golfing drama Tommy’s Honour, there's reason to be hopeful that the much-loved 85-year-old might make a surprise return to how hometown.