diff --git a/actionpack/actionpack.gemspec b/actionpack/actionpack.gemspec
index cc8351a489..e3aa84ba0f 100644
--- a/actionpack/actionpack.gemspec
+++ b/actionpack/actionpack.gemspec
@@ -20,10 +20,10 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
   s.requirements << 'none'
 
   s.add_dependency 'activesupport', version
-  s.add_dependency 'builder',       '~> 3.1.0'
+  s.add_dependency 'actionview',    version
+
   s.add_dependency 'rack',          '~> 1.5.2'
   s.add_dependency 'rack-test',     '~> 0.6.2'
-  s.add_dependency 'erubis',        '~> 2.7.0'
 
   s.add_development_dependency 'activemodel', version
   s.add_development_dependency 'tzinfo',      '~> 0.3.37'
diff --git a/actionview/CHANGELOG.md b/actionview/CHANGELOG.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ba3f2e2129
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+## Rails 4.0.0 (unreleased) ##
+
+*   First public release
diff --git a/actionview/MIT-LICENSE b/actionview/MIT-LICENSE
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..810daf856c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/MIT-LICENSE
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+Copyright (c) 2004-2012 David Heinemeier Hansson
+
+Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+"Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+the following conditions:
+
+The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+
+THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+
diff --git a/actionview/README.rdoc b/actionview/README.rdoc
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..09bbfdae0b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/README.rdoc
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+= Action View
+
+
+
+== Download and installation
+
+The latest version of Action View can be installed with RubyGems:
+
+  % [sudo] gem install actionview
+
+Source code can be downloaded as part of the Rails project on GitHub
+
+* https://github.com/rails/rails/tree/master/actionview
+
+
+== License
+
+Action View is released under the MIT license:
+
+* http://www.opensource.org/licenses/MIT
+
+
+== Support
+
+API documentation is at
+
+* http://api.rubyonrails.org
+
+Bug reports and feature requests can be filed with the rest for the Ruby on Rails project here:
+
+* https://github.com/rails/rails/issues
diff --git a/actionview/RUNNING_UNIT_TESTS b/actionview/RUNNING_UNIT_TESTS
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..1b29abd2d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/RUNNING_UNIT_TESTS
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+== Running with Rake
+
+The easiest way to run the unit tests is through Rake. The default task runs
+the entire test suite for all classes. For more information, checkout the
+full array of rake tasks with "rake -T"
+
+Rake can be found at http://rake.rubyforge.org
+
+== Running by hand
+
+To run a single test suite
+
+   rake test TEST=path/to/test.rb
+
+which can be further narrowed down to one test:
+
+   rake test TEST=path/to/test.rb TESTOPTS="--name=test_something"
+
+== Dependency on Active Record and database setup
+
+Test cases in the test/active_record/ directory depend on having
+activerecord and sqlite installed. If Active Record is not in
+actionpack/../activerecord directory, or the sqlite rubygem is not installed,
+these tests are skipped.
+
+Other tests are runnable from a fresh copy of actionpack without any configuration.
+
diff --git a/actionview/actionview.gemspec b/actionview/actionview.gemspec
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..84185f81f0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/actionview.gemspec
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+version = File.read(File.expand_path("../../RAILS_VERSION", __FILE__)).strip
+
+Gem::Specification.new do |s|
+  s.platform    = Gem::Platform::RUBY
+  s.name        = 'actionview'
+  s.version     = version
+  s.summary     = 'Rendering framework putting the V in MVC (part of Rails).'
+  s.description = ''
+
+  s.required_ruby_version = '>= 1.9.3'
+
+  s.license     = 'MIT'
+
+  s.author            = 'David Heinemeier Hansson'
+  s.email             = 'david@loudthinking.com'
+  s.homepage          = 'http://www.rubyonrails.org'
+
+  s.files        = Dir['CHANGELOG.md', 'README.rdoc', 'MIT-LICENSE', 'lib/**/*']
+  s.require_path = 'lib'
+  s.requirements << 'none'
+
+  s.add_dependency 'activesupport', version
+  s.add_dependency 'activemodel',   version
+
+  s.add_dependency 'builder',       '~> 3.1.0'
+  s.add_dependency 'erubis',        '~> 2.7.0'
+end
diff --git a/actionview/lib/action_view.rb b/actionview/lib/action_view.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..d6cdd61bbf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/lib/action_view.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+#--
+# Copyright (c) 2004-2012 David Heinemeier Hansson
+#
+# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining
+# a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the
+# "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including
+# without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish,
+# distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to
+# permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to
+# the following conditions:
+#
+# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be
+# included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
+#
+# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
+# EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
+# MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
+# NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE
+# LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
+# OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION
+# WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
+#++
+
+require 'action_view/version'
diff --git a/actionview/lib/action_view/version.rb b/actionview/lib/action_view/version.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b746c55e55
--- /dev/null
+++ b/actionview/lib/action_view/version.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+module ActionPack
+  # Returns the version of the currently loaded ActionView as a Gem::Version
+  def self.version
+    Gem::Version.new "4.0.0.beta1"
+  end
+
+  module VERSION #:nodoc:
+    MAJOR, MINOR, TINY, PRE = ActionPack.version.segments
+    STRING = ActionPack.version.to_s
+  end
+end
diff --git a/rails.gemspec b/rails.gemspec
index 4a17beac69..b426faf0e8 100644
--- a/rails.gemspec
+++ b/rails.gemspec
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ Gem::Specification.new do |s|
 
   s.add_dependency 'activesupport', version
   s.add_dependency 'actionpack',    version
+  s.add_dependency 'actionview',    version
   s.add_dependency 'activerecord',  version
   s.add_dependency 'actionmailer',  version
   s.add_dependency 'railties',      version