Mumbai: Brendan Fraser has signed on to star opposite Harrison Ford in The Untitled Crowley Project for CBS Films.

The announcement was made by a division of the CBS Corporation, CBS Films president and CEO Amy Baer. The project, with an anticipated start date in early April, will be the first film to go into production for CBS Films.

In this moving drama, Fraser plays a father who recruits the help of a scientist (Ford), forging an unlikely friendship in a race against time to solve the scientific mystery that could save his family. The film is inspired by the true story of John Crowley, a man who built a company that could rescue his children only to face the impossible choice of putting family first or the work that might spare them. Ford is also executive producer on the project. Tom Vaughan is set to direct it.

Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher, alongside Carla Shamberg, will produce through their Double Feature Films banner. Robert Nelson Jacobs wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by a Wall Street Journal article and subsequent book, The Cure, by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Geeta Anand.

"It’s an inspirational drama with universally relatable themes," said Baer. "Brendan has the unique ability to portray both strength and vulnerability, resulting in compassionate and compelling characters we’ve seen in such films as ‘Gods and Monsters’ and ‘Crash.’ This makes him the perfect choice to bring this determined and loving father’s story to the screen."

Michael, Sher, and Carla said: "We love uplifting stories inspired by ordinary people who fight to make a difference. Done well, these films fall into a great tradition of Hollywood entertainment. Like our other films, this is one of those stories."