Last month, Netflix had a change of heart when it came to Antoine Fuqua’s General Hannibal biopic starring Denzel Washington. Pre-production had been halted by the streamer. The film was scheduled to shoot this summer in Italy but was “put on pause” due to budget concerns—the rumored price tag for Fuqua’s film was over $200M.
Cinematographer Robert Richardson is telling The Playlist that the project is now “effectively dead.” I guess Fuqua could always go back to direct the ‘Michael’ sequel, which is currently being fast-tracked by Lionsgate for a late 2026 shoot.
The Hannibal film would have marked Fuqua’s sixth collaboration with Washington, this time chronicling the decisive campaigns Hannibal waged against Rome during the Second Punic War (218–201 B.C.).
The project had a screenplay by John Logan, whose résumé includes “Gladiator,” “The Aviator,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Skyfall.” Richardson was the DP. I had heard murmurs that Hans Zimmer was composing the score.
Of course, Fuqua is coming off “Michael,” which is currently the highest-grossing live-action film of 2026 and could hit the billion-dollar mark at the box office next week. It currently stands at over $980M worldwide.
Maybe Fuqua and Washington can quickly come up with a script for another ‘Equalizer’ film and shoot it this fall. Those movies are made fairly cheaply, with scripts that often feel like first drafts.
As for Washington, he has Fernando Meirelles’ “Here Comes the Flood,” alongside Robert Pattinson, arriving this fall, but otherwise has a wide-open 2026 schedule now that the Hannibal film has collapsed. He might also appear in ‘Black Panther 3,’ which is expected to begin shooting in the first quarter of 2027.