Lionsgate has set Paul Haggis to direct the thriller The Next Three Days after acquiring remake rights to the 2008 French release Pour Elle from Wild Bunch and Fidelite Films.

Haggis, reuniting with the studio for the first time since he wrote and directed the 2006 Oscar winner Crash, will adapt the screenplay and produce with his Highway 61 Films partner Michael Nozik alongside Marc Missonnier and Olivier Delbosc of Fidelite Films.

The Next Three Days centres on an ordinary couple whose love is tested to the limit in a desperate situation. Fidelite’s Missonnier and Delbosc produced the French original with Eric Jehelmann, which starred Diane Kruger and Vincent Lindon. Fred Cavaye earned a Cesar nomination this year for best first film.

Principal photography is expected to get underway in August with president of motion picture production Alli Shearmur and vice president of motion picture production Wolfgang Hammer overseeing for the studio.

Hammer brokered the deal for Lionsgate alongside executive vice president of business and legal affairs Robert Melnik and executive vice president of business and legal affairs, acquisitions and co-productions Wendy Jaffe.

Attorney Peter Dekom and Steven Brookman of CAA negotiated on behalf of Highway 61 and Agnes Mentre and Peter Grant of Grubman Indursky & Shire represented Fidelite Films. Highway 61’s new head of development Eugenie Grandval brought the project to the company.

Haggis and Highway 61 are represented by Risa Gertner and Byrdie Lifson at CAA and by Larry Becsey at IPG.

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