Crowe, Haggis team for 'Three Days' (THR, VAR)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Russell Crowe is in final negotiations to star in Paul Haggis' "The Next Three Days," a remake of Fred Cavaye’s French thriller "Pour Elle," at Lionsgate. Haggis is writing, directing and producing the film about a married couple thrown into a harrowing situation when the wife is imprisoned for a murder she claims she didn't commit and the husband must devise a way to get her out.

Haggis told Variety that the drama needed an actor who can thrive as an Everyman who rises when faced with an extraordinary circumstance, and Crowe was his top choice. "We've seen him as the gladiator, but he has embodied the Everyman in so many pictures," Haggis said.

Haggis continued, "The deeper theme here is, would you save the woman you loved if you knew that by doing so, you would turn into a man that woman could no longer love?"

Lionsgate acquired the remake rights from Wild Bunch and Fidelite earlier this year. Filming is scheduled to begin in September.

Haggis' Highway 61 Films partner Michael Nozik and Fidelite's Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc are producing.