EXCLUSIVE: He’ll be back…silver screen icon Arnold Schwarzenegger is set for a movie comeback after a four-year hiatus with action-thriller Breakout, which financier and sales firm Anton is launching ahead of the Cannes market.

Expendables 4 filmmaker Scott Waugh is aboard to direct the feature, which will see Arnie take on the lead role of Terry Reynolds. When his stepson, Daniel, is framed and sentenced to 25 years in a foreign country, Reynolds makes a daring jailbreak to save him and must overcome an overzealous prison warden in a race against time to avoid capture and flee the country.

Shoot is due to kick off this year in Eastern Europe. Pic is being financed and produced by Greenland outfit Anton and Off The Pier Productions (Canary Black). Anton is handling world sales, with UTA Independent Film Group co-repping domestic rights.

Richard D’Ovidio wrote the screenplay which is based on a story he co-created with Nicole D’Ovidio. D’Ovidio is currently writing for the Apple original series The Last Frontier which he co-created. He also penned the screenplay for thriller The Call starring Halle Berry.

The “big-budget project” marks a movie return for screen legend Schwarzenegger following 2019 film Terminator: Dark Fate. Upcoming, he has Netflix series Fubar, which is set to release next month. Kung Fury 2 remains in post-production having shot in 2019 and long-gestating sequel Triplets remains in the works but was delayed last year following the untimely death of director Ivan Reitman.

Producing are Sebastien Raybaud and John Zois from Anton, Jeff Elliott and Chad Moore from Off The Pier Productions, Oscar nominee Cindy Cowan from Cindy Cowan Entertainment (Very Bad Things), Carsten Lorenz (Independence Day), and Danny Chan from Almost Never Films (Barbarian) Steve Ponce is executive-producing. Off the Pier Productions and Cindy Cowan Entertainment developed and packaged the project.

Director Scott Waugh is coming off the fourth installment of hit franchise The Expendables, and is known for action movies including Act of Valor, and Dreamworks’ Need For Speed.

Anton’s Sebastien Raybaud said: ““We are proud to be on board to make Scott’s vision come alive with the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead. This is the perfect fit for Anton’s slate to continue delivering high-quality entertainment with big scale to the global market.”

Jeff Elliott added: “We couldn’t be more excited to be working with Scott, fresh off the much-anticipated Expendables 4, which is going to be huge. Pair that with Arnold, arguably the greatest action star in the history of film, and this is going to be a very fun ride for audiences all over the world.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger is repped by UTA and Patrick Knapp of GGSSC. Richard D’Ovidio is repped by Chris Davey and Geyer Kosinski of Media Talent Group and Rob Goldman of McKuin, Frankel, and Whitehead. Off the Pier Productions is repped by Anwen Griffiths of Lee and Thompson.