Source:Summit Entertainment

September 22, 2009

Summit Entertainment announced today that it has tapped the filmmaking team behind this spring's hit film Fast & Furious – director Justin Lin and producer Neal H. Moritz – to direct and produce respectively the studio's re-imagination of the cult film Highlander. Summit's Highlander is being written by Iron Man screenwriters Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Peter Davis, long time producer of Highlander, will also produce the film. Summit acquired the rights to remake the cult classic from Davis - Panzer Productions, Inc. in May of 2008.

Summit's film will expand on the original Highlander's core mythology of immortals battling amongst us, hunting each other through the ages by tapping its newly minted creative team to take its re-imagination to new heights. Plans call for the re-imagination to spur a new franchise for the studio.

"We are privileged to have this amazing opportunity to reinvent one of the great franchises," said Patrick Wachsberger, co-chairman of Summit Entertainment. "Neal and Justin have proven more than once that they can deliver an entertaining and exciting blockbuster."

Added Peter Davis of Davis-Panzer Productions, "Justin and Neal are an exciting directing/producing team and I am confident that they will deliver a truly dynamic film while being totally respectful of 'Highlander' Legend."

In Highlander, after centuries of dueling to survive against others like him, Connor MacLeod, an immortal Scottish swordsman must confront the last of his kind, a murderously brutal barbarian, who lusts for the fabled Prize.

Justin Lin most recently directed the hit action film Fast & Furious, the fourth film of the franchise. He also directed The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift and Better Luck Tomorrow.

In addition to Fast & Furious, Neal Moritz and his Original Film banner have produced a myriad of action films including the upcoming Flash Gordon and The Green Hornet as well as I Am Legend, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and I Know What You Did Last Summer.