Jean-Claude Van Damme will headline “Swelter”, which The Exchange has snared worldwide sales rights to, say reports out of Berlin.

The Keith Parmer-directed actioner stars Van Damme as a former bank robber who becomes a sheriff with no memory of his previous life. The robber’s former colleagues track down their former accomplice years later.

Here’s a more concise synopsis :

It was the most notorious robbery in Las Vegas history. Five men, nicknamed the Rat Pack, hit the Luxor Casino for over one hundred million dollars. Four of the five men were soon captured, while one barely escaped. Ten years later, after blasting their way out of a maximum a security prison, the four members of the Rat Pack that did not get away are hot on the trail of the one that did and the remaining ten million in stolen cash. The trail leads them to a dying desert town less than a hundred mile from the scene of the crime, they find their former partner in crime is not the man he once was… now he’s the sheriff. And the sheriff must become the violent man he once was to protect all that he holds dear.

“Swelter is a bull’s-eye in terms of what the international market desires – proven stars in an action-packed film at the right price”, The Exchange’s Brian O’Shea told Screen Daily.

Lennie James (“The Walking Dead”), Catalina Sandino Moreno (“Maria Full of Grace”) and Josh Henderson (“Dallas”) are also onboard the film, which begins filming at the end of the month.