Is Russell Crowe preparing for the day when audiences dismiss him as a credible leading man? Neither of his 2010 efforts (The Next Three Days, Robin Hood) managed to make a profit domestically and they didn't strike the kind of fire a Russell Crowe headliner might have done ten years ago (I enjoyed them both however) - and perhaps now he is nearing 50 years old, he is thinking about the next stage of his career? Deadline reports that Crowe is mulling over the opportunity to make his feature directing debut with 77, a period hostage thriller based on a story by crime writer James Ellroy, who wrote the book L.A. Confidential which provided Crowe with a breakout role into serious-minded, Oscar potential fare in the late 90's. When the project was setup at Paramount originallym they hired Ellroy to write 77 as his first original screenplay deal but he never finished it and handed it over to David Matthews, who has lead writing credit. (Usefully Deadline don't tell us which David Matthews it is because there's a load of them on IMDB). The movie would tell the true story of a televised 1974 shootout between the LAPD and Symbionese Liberation Army, which is connected with an unsolved murder of a police officer. The event, which lasted hours with 50,000 rounds of gunfire fired and half a dozen people left dead, is told from the point of view of two cops - one black, one white. As well as directing, Crowe would play the part of the white cop and this definitely sounds like the makings of another Ellroy classic. Though the deal isn't quite finalised and Crowe wants to wait upon a new re-write before agreeing to make it but let's hope he at least agrees to star in it, because this sounds like it could be a killer movie.