Summit Entertainment has hired Fast & Furious helmer Justin Lin and producer Neal Moritz in hopes of turning a reboot of the Highlander film into a franchise.  Lin and Moritz collaborated on Universal’s Fast & Furious franchise, while Moritz is producing new films based on vintage properties, Flash Gordon and The Green Hornet that have franchise potential. The original Highlander movie was certainly no slacker in the franchise realm, having spawned four sequels, three TV series, and an anime feature as well as novels, video games, a trading card game, and a comic book from Dynamite Entertainment.

Thanks to the box office popularity of its adaptation of Twilight and the critical success of The Hurt Locker, Summit has become one of the more successful indie outfits in Hollywood.  In May of 2008 Summit acquired the rights to Highlander and hired Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway to write the new Highlander film (see “Iron Man Scribes Attempt to Revive Highlander”).

According to Variety, the new version of the Highlander “will center on an immortal Scottish swordsman who must confront a murderously brutal barbarian who lusts for a fabled prize.”