Denzel Washington is one of the biggest, most respected actors around today. He doesn’t have a Will Smith-style box office pull, but Smith doesn’t have the same respect that Washington does. Denzel has had a long career, spanning 30 years and filled with some really great films, as well as some pretty bad ones too.
From Spike Lee to Tony Scott, the guy has good relationships with the best in the business. He has five Academy Award nominations and two wins to show for his efforts.
The 55-year old actor is still busy, and with his high-profile post-apocalyptic thriller, The Book of Eli, coming out this weekend, it’s time to look into his future and check out what we can expect from Denzel.
As it turns out, Mr. Washington is a very busy man. He has his upcoming Eli this weekend, as well as one film in post-production and eight all in early development. The next film he’ll be doing for sure, Unstoppable, comes out November 12 of this year, a big pre-Thanksgiving slot. The film has an estimated budget of $100 million and sounds like a disaster flick what with “toxic chemicals” and some “race against time” in its synopsis. This doesn’t sound all that interesting to me, but any concept, however uninteresting, can become a great film with unexpected execution. Unstoppable will co-star Chris Pine and Rosario Dawson.
Another film on his long list is Inside Man 2. Why they’re doing a sequel to that film I really don’t know. Inside Man was a solid movie that became a minor hit, but by no means did anyone walk out thinking a sequel would come along. It ended. The story is done, and another film seems like a hopeless grab at developing a familiar property. Spike Lee will return for the film, but the original’s screenwriter, Russel Gewirtz has been replaced by the more seasoned Terry George. While Jodie Foster is not yet signed, Clive Owen and Chiewetel Ejiofor are both set to come back for round two.
Interestingly enough, Washington’s next film in development, Uptown Saturday Night, will co-star Will Smith. It almost sounds like a sort of star-studded, black Hangover type film. The synopsis reads, “A comedy centered around two friends, their night at an illegal club, a misplaced wallet, and a winning lottery ticket.” A simple premise, but I’m fascinated just thinking about these two playing off of each other in a comedy. That sounds really interesting, and with Smith’s draw on his own, there’s no doubt it will be an enormous success.
Of all the projects on Washington’s list, this next one interests me the most by far. The Matarese Circle is a David Cronenberg film. That’s right, Denzel Washington will star in a film by the guy that did A History of Violence. And to top it off, Tom Cruise will co-star in the huge double bill. The plot sounds extremely simple: “two secret agents — and longtime rivals — are paired up to find a shadowy group of killers known as the Matarese,” and is actually based on a book by “Bourne Identity” author Robert Ludlum. The fact that it had three screenwriters is a bit of a red flag, but two of them wrote 3:10 to Yuma and Wanted together, and Cronenberg has a great eye for a good film on the page, so I have to imagine this one will be great.
Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci are some of the biggest names in Hollywood today. The guys wrote Transformers and Star Trek. The duo will be writing and producing The 28th Amendment, in which Washington is the only current member of the cast. The film sounds as if it was ripped straight from Prison Planet or some other conspiracy site: “The new President of the United States discovers a secret cabal that runs the government and wants him dead.”
The interesting part of the project for me is its director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Yes, yes, he has a very silly name, but he directed the dark drama “The Lives of Others” which beat out “Pan’s Labyrinth” for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. Big shot Richard Donner of Lethal Weapon and Superman fame will co-produce the film.
Journal for Jordan is not very far along in development considering the project still has no director to speak of. From the title, I’m sure you could guess that this is indeed another Iraq war drama, based on a true story of an Iraqi soldier who writes to his son in a diary on becoming a man before he is tragically killed. Modern war dramas have had a very hard time breaking out in the public’s eye. The Hurt Locker might be winning awards, but despite a small indie budget, it wasn’t anymore successful than studio Iraq war flops of the past. We’ll see if this film can alter the trend with Washington’s presence.
While he has no other acting roles set up, Denzel does have two other films he will be working on in other ways. In Black and White only has a screenwriter and producers listed, but Washington is co-producing the film with Brian Grazer and Imagine Entertainment. The only other tid-bit that gives the film any high-profile at all is that it’s a Sammy Davis Jr. bio-pic. We’ll see who they end up casting as Sammy if the film goes further into development soon.
Denzel is also set to produce and direct Brothers in Arms which I don’t believe is based on the video game series, despite the name and similar premise. The synopsis should tell you why the game likely has nothing to do with this film: “An African-American military unit in World War II overcomes prejudice and proves themselves in the Battle of the Bulge.” I wouldn’t be surprised if Washington ended up on the cast list shortly as a commander of some sort, but he may decide to keep it authentic and go for some great young black actors like Anthony Mackie.
As you can see, Denzel Washington’s long career and older age doesn’t keep him from being busy. He’ll have plenty to do over the next three years, and while some of these projects probably won’t ever finish, he’ll still have quite the handful anyway.
