This could be fun. Lots of potential here.
Amazon MGM Studios and Scott Stuber's United Artists have greenlit an untitled thriller starring Denzel Washington, with Christopher McQuarrie directing. Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner, fairly relative newcomers, wrote the script, and the studio has already set a theatrical release date of October 1, 2027.
The premise: “A former police detective serving life in prison learns he has terminal brain cancer. He's granted compassionate release with six months left and heads home to reconnect with the daughter he abandoned and to meet a grandson he didn't know he had. All he wants is to make things right and leave his past behind. Naturally, his past has other plans.”
Denzel playing a broken ex-cop with nothing to lose, under McQuarrie's direction? I’m in. We all know Washington loves to attach himself to redemption stories, there are too many to name — it’s his bread and butter. Producers are now looking to cast the daughter.
Washington was actually supposed to reunite with Antoine Fuqua this fall on Netflix's ‘Hannibal’ epic, but the streamer nixed the project, citing budget concerns. After ‘Narnia” and ‘Cliff Booth’ went way overbudget, do you blame them? According to Deadline, that opened a window, and after meeting with McQuarrie, Denzel signed on to make this his next film.
Washington has been busy. He just returned to Broadway in “Othello” opposite Jake Gyllenhaal, and he last acted on screen in Spike Lee's “Highest 2 Lowest.” Next up is Netflix's “The Take” (formerly “Here Comes the Flood”) with Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones, which was originally rumored to premiere this year, but is now due in 2027.
As for McQuarrie, this marks his return to crime after a decade with Tom Cruise on those ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, where he directed the last four, ending with ‘The Final Reckoning.’ Before Cruise took over his career, he won an Oscar for writing “The Usual Suspects” and directed “The Way of the Gun” and “Jack Reacher.” Some people tend to forget that.
Olivia Wilde, coming off great reviews for "The Invite," is shooting her next film, a holiday comedy titled "Naughty," which already had Jennifer Aniston and Peter Dinklage attached as the two main leads.