Summit Entertainment will release Roman Polanski’s retitled The Ghost Writer in North America in the first half of 2010.

Summit acquired rights from ICM and is intimately familiar with the project having handled foreign sales through Summit International. The film is tipped to receive its world premiere at the Berlinale in February.

Based on Robert Harris’ novel The Ghost, the thriller stars Ewan McGregor as a professional ghostwriter who uncovers political and sexual intrigue when he is sent to the Eastern seaboard to help the former UK Prime Minister complete his memoirs after the leader’s aide drowns.

Pierce Brosnan, Olivia Williams, Kim Cattrall, Jim Belushi, Robert Pugh and Tom Wilkinson star. Polanski produced with longtime collaborators Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde.

The production is set up as a French-German-UK co-production between RP Films 11, Babelsberg Film and Runteam III. Polanski, Cattrall, Williams and Belushi are represented by ICM.

In a fittingly dramatic real-life series of events, Polanski was recently editing the film from Swiss prison, where he was being detained pending possible extradition to the US relating to criminal charges dating back to 1977.

The Polish-born director has been released from prison and remains under house arrest at his chalet in Switzerland while attorneys work on the case.

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