By Michael Fleming

NEW YORK (Variety) - Rachel Weisz, currently in theaters with "About A Boy," will play the female lead in "The Runaway Jury," the long-gestating legal drama based on the John Grisham bestseller.

Gary Fleder will direct the project for New Regency, with shooting set to begin Sept. 16 in New Orleans. The Fox-based studio is funding the $60 million itself and has yet to find a dometic distributor after Warner Bros. dropped out.

"Jury," which has been in development for six years, revolves around an attempt to fix a landmark trial against a gunmaker. Weisz will play the manipulative and beautiful love interest of the jury foreman (John Cusack). Squaring off against each other for the first time in their long careers is Gene Hackman, who plays a strategist for the defendant, and Dustin Hoffman, the plaintiff's lawyer in the civil case.

This lineup comes after six years and $15 million in book rights and script costs, and the kind of catastrophes that would have prompted many to declare "Jury" a mistrial.

It all began in 1996, when Regency principal Arnon Milchan, who'd just scored a hit with WB and Joel Schumacher on Grisham's "A Time to Kill," paid between $6 million and $8 million for "Jury" with an eye toward reteaming the studio and director. Edward Norton, Gwyneth Paltrow and Sean Connery were set to star.

The project got scrapped abruptly in July 1997 when Schumacher and Connery bailed for creative reasons. The book's plot hinged on a landmark trial against tobacco companies, a premise that grew dated when several real cases were lost. The prospect of Michael Mann's "The Insider" also didn't help, and Norton starred in "Fight Club." "Jury" languished.

Regency wouldn't let the project go quietly, however. It cleverly resuscitated the plotline by changing the defendant. Director Alfonso Cuaron came aboard, then left. Phillip Kaufman also flirted with "Jury" before bailing. WB quietly dropped out as well.

Milchan appeared to get a huge break when notoriously finicky director Mike Newell committed to make the film late last year with Will Smith. But the project crashed when Grisham used his casting approval rights to nix that combination. Milchan hardly had time to stay angry with the author because the rights had expired and reverted to Grisham. New Regency had to strike a new deal, sweetening Grisham's backend to keep the film's faint pulse beating.

Regency then turned to Fleder, who'd just directed for the financier the hit "Don't Say a Word." Fleder sparked to the drama, Cusack committed, then Hackman and Hoffman followed.

The final piece was Weisz, "The Mummy" star who just wrapped "Confidence," opposite Ed Burns and "Jury" co-star Hoffman. She also starred in and co-produced the Neil LaBute-directed "The Shape of Things."

Before she begins "Jury" duty, Weisz will join Ben Stiller and Jack Black in the DreamWorks comedy "Envy." She plays the wife of Stiller's character, who becomes consumed with jealousy when his best pal (Black) gets filthy rich. Barry Levinson will direct.