EXCLUSIVE: Veteran filmmaker John Herzfeld, director of movies including Escape Plan: The Extractors, Robert DeNiro pic 15 Minutes, and HBO Emmy winner Don King: Only in America, is newly aboard for horror-thriller Specimen.

The film heralds from producer-financiers Chase Vergari and Eric Handler, whose recent credits include upcoming Walton Goggins action film Mister and Samuel L. Jackson action film The Beast.

Herzfeld will rewrite Vergari’s original script, “about an elite team hired to deliver the world’s worst serial killers to a secret research facility run by a visionary neuroscientist obsessed with curing evil. When his groundbreaking experiment succeeds, he unleashes something far more dangerous than the killers he has imprisoned”. Companies are Second Act Pictures and Script 2 Screen Capital.

Discussions with talent are underway.

“What drew me to Specimen was the theme: can evil be cured, and if so, at what cost?” said writer-director John Herzfeld. “The story follows a charismatic visionary who risks becoming the very thing he set out to destroy. That struggle between good and evil is as relevant now as it has ever been.”

“I wrote Specimen as the first chapter of a much larger world,” commented producer and screenwriter Chase Vergari. “I wanted to build something that works as a relentless standalone horror-thriller but opens into a universe we can keep exploring. With Eric and John attached, we have the team to do exactly that.”

“At the heart of Specimen is one of the most electrifying lead roles I’ve read in years, and John is exactly the filmmaker to bring it to life,” added producer Eric Handler. “He also has a remarkable history of casting actors in early roles who go on to become major stars. Specimen is built around a remarkable ensemble, including three phenomenal female roles, and I can’t think of a better filmmaker to discover who fills them. This is the kind of bold, commercial film audiences are hungry for.”

Vergari served as executive producer on By Any Means (Paramount Pictures), the Elegance Bratton-directed historical crime thriller starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, which is set for wide release on September 4, 2026; and Iconoclast, the directorial debut of The Night Agent star Gabriel Basso, which had its world premiere at the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival.

Handler began his career as a creative executive at DreamWorks before becoming an agent at William Morris. He is represented by McKuin Frankel Whitehead.