The Painted Desert selected Higgin to direct the film, as well as naming the stars of the film, William Boyd and Dorothy Burgess. Later in the month it was reported that Higgin would head to Arizona to begin location scouting for the film, accompanied by fellow director, Tay Garnett, however in August Higgin began scouting in the Arizona desert with the screenwriter, Tom Buckingham. It was announced that the film would employ over 300 extras. Higgin was familiar with the area, having working in and around Flagstaff, Arizona as a lumberjack prior to his entering the film industry. Towards the end of August
3 Nights in the Desert film will have a US theatrical release in early 2015 followed by the DVD and VOD release. "3 Nights in the Desert" was selected to screen at the following film festivals: Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 40% of five surveyed critics gave it a positive review; the average rating was 4.8/10. Dennis Harvey of "Variety" wrote that "the characters, situations and dialogue too seldom escape cliche in Gabriel Cowan’s watchable but unmemorable feature". Stephen Farber of "The Hollywood Reporter" wrote, "This limp drama about a band's reunion never sings or soars." 3 Nights in the Desert 3 Nights