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Russell Crowe to Star in Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days

by Alex Billington
July 29, 2009

Russell Crowe is in negotiations to star in Paul Haggis' The Next Three Days, an English language remake of the 2008 French film Pour Elle. Crowe will play a high school teacher whose wife is arrested and convicted of a murder she says she did not commit. He comes up with a desperate plan to free her from prison. Haggis, who last directed In the Valley of Elah in 2007, wrote the script and will direct as well, with production beginning in September in Pittsburgh. "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?"

Haggis told Variety that, "the drama needed an actor who can thrive as an Everyman who rises when faced with an extraordinary circumstance." Crowe was his top choice, but certainly not mine, for that role. "We've seen him as the gladiator, but he has embodied the Everyman in so many pictures," Haggis explains. You know, I guess I'm not so opposed to this, because with movies like Body of Lies and State of Play, I think Crowe has proven that he's capable of almost anything, whether it be Robin Hood or a school teacher. I'll be following this project closely as it develops. I think it could turn out to be something pretty incredible!

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