The internet was buzzing today with word that Russell Crowe was eying the lead in The Next Three Days.

Variety confirms Crowe has been cast in the role of a 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.

The Next Three Days is an adaptation of the 2008 French film Pour Elle.

Director Paul Haggis told Daily 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 said the film explores deeper themes of faith and belief.

Said Haggis: “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?”

Crowe is currently in the U.K. filming Robin Hood.