Here is a simple html derived mode for Cheetah templates files. The font-locking regexp can be improved thought but that’s a start.
(define-derived-mode cheetah-mode html-mode "Cheetah"
(make-face 'cheetah-variable-face)
(font-lock-add-keywords
nil
'(
("\\(#\\(from\\|else\\|include\\|set\\|import\\|for\\|if\\|end\\)+\\)\\>" 1 font-lock-type-face)
("\\(#\\(from\\|for\\|end\\)\\).*\\<\\(for\\|import\\|if\\|in\\)\\>" 3 font-lock-type-face)
("\\(\\$\\(?:\\sw\\|}\\|{\\|\\s_\\)+\\)" 1 font-lock-variable-name-face))
)
(font-lock-mode 1)
)
(setq auto-mode-alist (cons '( "\\.tmpl\\'" . cheetah-mode ) auto-mode-alist ))