The first trailer for The Next Three Days has made its way online at Yahoo! (via Collider) and it looks pretty damn good.  The film comes from the brilliant mind of Paul Haggis; Oscar-winning screenwriter/director responsible for the likes of Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Letters from Iwo Jima and Casino Royale, just to name a few. No big deal, right? His latest film stars Russell Crowe and Elizabeth Banks as John and Lara Brennan, a typical married couple who’s lives get turned upside down when Lara is arrested and convicted of a murder she didn’t commit. Or did she? John then cooks up a crazy plan to break his beloved wife out of prison. Sounds pretty sweet to me.

The cast in the film is obviously awesome. It doesn’t need to be said, but Crowe is one of the top 10 actors working today, so I’ll see anything that he’s in. Elizabeth Banks is creating quite a versatile career for herself. We’ve seen her do comedy through her appearances on 30 Rock and her starring role in Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Then she’s got biographical work on her resumé when she played Laura Bush in Oliver Stone’s W. Now she’s climbed all the way up the ladder to co-star with an Oscar-winning actor and for an Oscar-winning writer/director in the same film. Not bad Ms. Banks, not bad. Also making an appearance in The Next Three Days is the great Liam Neeson, seemingly as John’s prison-break confidant and advisor. The beautiful and talented Olivia Wilde has a supporting role as well. Check out the first official trailer for The Next Three Days below, with more to follow.

Looks great, right? A good ol’ fashion crime-thriller, in 2D, with a great cast and a great writer/director. What more do you want in a movie? The official plot synopsis for The Next Three Days goes something like this:

Life seems perfect for John Brennan until his wife, Lara, is arrested for a gruesome murder she says she didn’t commit. Three years into her sentence, John is struggling to hold his family together, raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal, Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible, bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience, John devises an elaborate escape plot and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world, ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves.

The Next Three Days opens everywhere on November 19th.

What Do You Think? Discuss.