As far back as March of 2007, Russell Crowe was considering making his directorial debut with Bra Boys, a drama about surfers in his native Australia. For whatever reason you feel like citing-- Robin Hood flopping? surfers being sooooo 2002?-- the movie never panned out, but it seems Crowe has finally found the movie that will get him behind the camera for real. And appropriately enough, the movie ties him back to one of his first major American films, L.A. Confidential.

According to Deadline Crowe is "seriously considering" starring and directing 77, a cop movie based around two real-life stories from Los Angeles in 1974-- one the unresolved murder of an LAPD officer, the other a shootout between the Symbionese LIberation Army and the police department. The two main characters are cop partners, one black and one white. David Matthews has rewritten the script originally done by James Ellroy, whose novel was the basis for-- you guessed it-- L.A. Confidential. Ellroy's history as a screenwriter is a little iffier than his work as a novelist-- he wrote the screenplay for 2008's Street Kings-- but there's not really anyone living who knows Los Angeles crime stories better.

Crowe is waiting on the new draft before he decides if he'll move forward with 77; beyond a lead role in the Clint Eastwood-directed A Star Is Born remake that seems in no hurry to be made, Crowe has nothing else on his docket to get in the way.