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ACADEMY AWARD®-WINNING FILMMAKER ROMAN POLANSKI TO ADAPT AND DIRECT ROBERT HARRIS' NOVEL, THE
POLITICAL THRILLER — THE GHOST
Harris to Adapt Novel to the Screen Alongside Polanski with Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde to Produce Los Angeles, CA November 8, 2007 — It was announced today that Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski plans to adapt and direct his next feature film based on the 2007 novel, the political thriller The Ghost, written by best-selling author Robert Harris. Harris will join Polanski in adapting the book for the big screen. Robert Benmussa and Alain Sarde will produce the film slated to begin principal photography in Europe during the fall of 2008. Summit International, which has a long-standing relationship with both Polanski and the producers, will represent the worldwide rights to the film. Polanski stated, "I have been looking for a political thriller to direct for some time and THE GHOST could not be more perfect. Robert has constructed a novel with such suspense it is hard to put it down. I cannot wait to start conjuring this suspense on the big screen." "Roman Polanski is a terrific director of tense thrillers, and I couldn't imagine a better person to make a movie out of The Ghost," stated Harris. "There's a lot of psychological intrigue in the story, as well as espionage and politics, and most of the action takes place in an ocean-front house during the middle of winter — all of it classic Polanski territory. I am thrilled to be working with him on the screenplay." THE GHOST — A timely contemporary thriller about a ghost writer who is hired to complete the memoirs of a former British Prime Minister. He uncovers secrets which puts his own life in jeopardy and threatens the very core of the British and American establishments. Noted Summit Co-Chairman Patrick Wachsberger, "Roman has found with THE GHOST a great and timely political thriller in the vain of 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR; the ideal material for Roman Polanski to deliver a very commercial film. We are thrilled to be along for the ride." Development and production of THE GHOST once again teams Polanski with producers Benmussa and Sarde as the three in the past collaborated on THE PIANIST and OLIVER TWIST. Additional Information: Roman Polanski, the Academy Award®-winning director of THE PIANIST (2002) received his first Oscar® nomination for his 1964 film KNIFE IN THE WATER. Another Oscar nomination followed for the screenplay adaptation of the 1968 psychological thriller ROSEMARY'S BABY. Polanski was again nominated for Best Director in 1974 for CHINATOWN and once more in 1979 for TESS. To date he has directed 28 films in addition to several productions of live theatre. British writer Robert Harris has been a full-time novelist ever since the international success of his first novel, Fatherland in 1992, a New York Times bestseller which imagined that Germany won World War II. Fatherland was subsequently made into an HBO movie starring Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson. A film deal soon followed for his second novel Enigma (1995) about the breaking of the German Enigma code, which was turned into a film starring Kate Winslet with screenplay by Tom Stoppard. Archangel (1998) was also an international best seller and was adapted as a BBC mini-series in 2005, starring Daniel Craig. While his aforementioned best sellers dealt with historical fiction of the World War II era and possible outcomes, in 2003, Harris turned his attention towards Ancient Rome with his acclaimed Pompeii which was an international best seller. He followed this with the start of a trilogy, called Imperium (2006), about the life of Rome's great orator, Cicero.  
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