After saving lives as a pilot in Robert Zemeckis’ upcoming movie Flight, it appears Denzel Washington is going back to kicking some ass for Sony Pictures in The Equalizer. Deadline reports that the actor will play the lead role in the film adaptation of the 1980s television show, which followed a retired intelligence officer named Robert McCall who helps people are being victimized.
Filming is set to begin on April 8th, but Sony is in the process of meeting with some big name directors right now to see who will end up sitting in the director’s chair. Monsters and Godzilla director Gareth Edwards is in the mix alongside Drive helmer Nicolas Winding Refn, From Paris With Love’s Pierre Morel, and Warrior’s Gavin O’Connor.
Washington is set to make his normal $20 million payday on this project (which is completely preposterous, by the way, that someone can make that much money by doing a few months of work), and the budget of the whole film looks to be in the $50 million range. This character sounds like a typical Washington archetype, so we’ll see if he can bring something new to the table and earn that paycheck or if this will just end up being more fodder for Saturday Night Live skits.
