Summit Entertainment announced today that the studio will distribute the thriller The Ghost Writer, directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski, in North America. Polanski produced the film along with long time collaborators Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde. Summit International, which has a long-standing relationship with Polanski representing the sales of the rights to his films outside of North America, acted as sales agent for The Ghost Writer. Sales have been made in all major territories around the globe. The North American rights to the film were represented by ICM. Current plans call for Summit to release the film during the first half of 2010.

The movie thriller tells the story of a former British Prime Minister, Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), who is holed up on an island off the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. in midwinter, writing his memoirs. When his long-standing aide drowns, a professional ghostwriter (Ewan McGregor) is sent out to help him finish the book. The anonymous ghost writer is quickly drawn into a political and sexual intrigue involving Lang's wife, Ruth (Olivia Williams) and his aide (Kim Cattrall). Hanging over Lang is the threat of a war crimes trial and a mysterious secret from his past that threatens to jeopardize international relations. The cast also includes Jim Belushi, Robert Pugh and Tom Wilkinson. Alexandre Desplat scored the film.

The Ghost Writer is based on the novel The Ghost written by best-selling author Robert Harris. It won the International Thriller Writers' Award for best novel of 2008. Harris joined Polanski in adapting the book for the big screen.

In a joint statement, Summit Entertainment Co-Chairmen Rob Friedman and Patrick Wachsberger said, "We had the good fortune to recently screen The Ghost Writer in Paris and were amazed at the film Roman and his team have created. He once again has proven himself as one of the world's most talented filmmakers and master of suspense creating a very modern thriller and we look forward to sharing this film with North American audiences."

The production is set up as a French-German-UK co-production between RP Films (F) 11, Babelsberg Film (Ger) and Runteam III (UK). Henning Molfenter, Carl L. Woebcken and Christoph Fisser (Studio Babelsberg) co-produced the film along with Timothy Burrill (Runteam).

The Ghost Writer was released February 19th, 2010 and stars Ewan McGregor, Jon Bernthal, Kim Cattrall, Pierce Brosnan, Tim Preece, James Belushi, Olivia Williams, Timothy Hutton. The film is directed by Roman Polanski.