Plans to film The Last Witch Hunter were announced in 2012 and initially Timur Bekmambetov was to direct the film based on a script written by Cory Goodman. Bekmambetov was later replaced by Breck Eisner and Goodman's script was re-written by D.W. Harper before Melisa Wallack was brought on work on the film's script. Vin Diesel was announced to be performing in the film, which will be produced through Lionsgate-Summit. The production filed for a film tax credit in Pennsylvania and was allocated a tax credit of $14 million. In February 2014 Vin Diesel posted a photo of the film's concept artwork to his Facebook page and Lionsgate CEO Jon Feitheimer commented that if successful, The Last Witch Hunter could become a film franchise. In July 2014 it was.announced that Rose Leslie would be joining the cast as Vin Diesel's co-star, and in August, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine , and Ólafur Darri Ólafsson were also announced as attached.to the film.Julie Engelbrecht and Lotte Verbeek will also star.