Here’s an update on a project that was announced three years ago: Antoine Fuqua’s Netflix-backed biopic of the legendary Carthaginian Hannibal, with Denzel Washington set to portray the general, is set to start production in June.
Furthermore, the DP is Robert Richardson, a three-time Oscar-winning cinematographer, whose work with Quentin Tarantino (“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Kill Bill”), Martin Scorsese (“The Aviator,” “Casino”), and Oliver Stone (“JFK,” “Platoon”) has made him one of the most visually distinctive DPs in the game.
Set Fuqua aside for a moment — the project at least has a commendable screenwriter in John Logan, whose résumé includes “Gladiator, The Aviator, Sweeney Todd, and Skyfall.
And of course, Washington remains one of the finest actors alive. Still, it has to be said: Hannibal wasn’t Black. Historically, a Carthaginian would most closely resemble someone from modern-day Tunisia. So yes, there’s a bit of revisionist casting going on here. This has caused controversy, with Denzel’s casting sparking backlash that has reached all the way to the Tunisian parliament.
That said, if there’s anyone with the presence and gravitas to sell it, it’s Denzel. The film — which would mark Fuqua’s sixth collaboration with Washington — will chronicle the decisive campaigns Hannibal waged against Rome during the Second Punic War (218–201 B.C.). It’s hard not to wonder how the news will land in Tunisia, where Hannibal is more than a historical figure; he’s a near-mythic national hero.
Washington famously won his Oscar for Fuqua’s “Training Day” back in 2001. Since then, though, their collaborations haven’t exactly set the world on fire — most notably the three ‘Equalizer’ films and the ill-fated 2015 remake of “The Magnificent Seven.”
Fuqua’s non-Washington output doesn’t exactly inspire much more confidence: “Tears of the Sun,” “King Arthur,” “Brooklyn’s Finest,” “Olympus Has Fallen,” “Southpaw,” “Emancipation,” and “The Guilty.”
Fuqua has his Michael Jackson biopic coming out in April — also written by Logan — and he’s been working on that one since 2023, with chaotic post production work delaying any possibility for him to hop onboard another project. Suffice to say it, he now has a free schedule to tackle Hannibal.
So there's a script. That's something. It looks as though “The Movie Critic” really is dead and buried, and that this is a brand-new project, and title, but the premise is unknown.