Renny Harlin, the director behind “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger,” is attached to direct “Evac,” a prison rescue thriller that returns him to the setting of his feature debut. The film follows a medical specialist who must team with a wounded inmate she was sent to save after their medical helicopter crash-lands in a volatile prison yard. Sidney King wrote the script, and Harlin called it a “non-stop adrenaline rush” that pairs a ticking-clock mission with character-driven stakes.
Michael Roccio produces, and Bursteen of Milestone Studios is also on board. Milestone’s credits include the action-thriller “Hunting Season” and the upcoming horror film “Invertigo.” Roccio praised the script for balancing prison politics with raw survival and predicted an event for action audiences. No cast was named in the announcement, and no start date has been set.
The assignment follows a busy stretch for Harlin. He most recently directed Lionsgate’s horror trilogy “The Strangers.” In 2021 he directed “The Misfits,” a heist film in which a team of thieves infiltrates a prison to steal gold, with Pierce Brosnan in the lead.
“Evac” also revisits old territory. Harlin made his name early with “Prison,” a 1987 horror film starring Viggo Mortensen, Lane Smith and Kane Hodder. That story follows a reopened penitentiary haunted by the ghost of a wrongly executed inmate. He made it shortly before “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4,” and three years ahead of “Die Hard 2.” Harlin has said he took the job because he liked the idea of a horror film set in a prison, even though he did not love the script.
His reputation rests on action built around confined, high-pressure locations. A helicopter wreck in the middle of a prison yard fits that pattern, trapping a rescuer and her patient between guards, inmates and a deadline. The genre has demanded bigger spectacle in recent years, and Harlin’s record suggests he will aim for practical, physical set pieces.
The project sits in the independent market, where financiers often bet on proven genre names to move a title worldwide. A director with Harlin’s credits can anchor sales before a single actor signs. Casting will likely determine how soon cameras roll and how wide the release reaches.
