Here's an update on that Christopher McQuarrie-Denzel Washington project set up at Amazon/MGM Studios.
According to Production Weekly, the film has a title, "Compassionate Release," and will start shooting next month in New York. Filming runs from November 2026 through February 2027, and has set an October 1, 2027 release date.
An interesting detail is behind the camera: McQuarrie has hired Eigil Bryld as his director of photography. That's a notable change for McQuarrie, who has spent the last decade in the "Mission: Impossible" world, working with DPs like Robert Elswit, Rob Hardy and Fraser Taggart.
Bryld is a different kind of cinematographer. He shot "In Bruges," "The Holdovers" and David Fincher's "House of Cards." That seems like the right fit for what is a smaller, character-driven crime story, and a real change of pace for McQuarrie after years of stunt-heavy theatrics.
Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner wrote the script. Washington plays a former police detective serving a life sentence who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Granted compassionate release with six months to live, he goes home to the estranged daughter he left behind and meets a grandson he never knew he had. He just wants to make amends and put his past behind him, but his past isn't done with him.
This project came together very quickly. McQuarrie, who is no longer Tom Cruise's right-hand man, needed to find new work. Meanwhile, Washington was supposed to reunite with Antoine Fuqua this fall on Netflix's "Hannibal" epic, but the streamer scrapped the project, citing budget concerns.
This is McQuarrie's first directing job outside the Tom Cruise partnership since "The Way of the Gun," released more than 25 years ago. His last non-‘Mission: Impossible’ movie was “Jack Reacher” in 2012. Pairing him with Washington in a late-career redemption thriller could produce the kind of grown-up studio movie we don't get enough of anymore. Cameras roll in a few weeks.
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.