Sony is very high on their fall Denzel Washington vehicle “The Equalizer.” An adaptation of the Edward Woodward-starring TV classic (particularly beloved of Rob Reiner in “The Wolf Of Wall Street“), it made the Black List while only in script form, initially attracted the attention of hot directors like Nicolas Winding Refn and Rupert Wyatt, and the film’s apparently attracted some of the best test scores in the company’s history, enough so that they’ve already put a sequel into development.
Which is all very confusing, because from everything we’ve seen, including the full trailer that just landed today, the film looks pretty average at best. Denzel Washington stars as a former special ops sort who faked his death in order to live an ordinary life, but is drawn back to a world of violence in order to save a young prostitute (Chloë Grace Moretz) from the Russian mob. It appears to be essentially a reheated “Man On Fire,” but with journeyman Antoine Fuqua (reuniting with Washington for the first time since “Training Day“) at the helm, and without the bonkers stylistic touches that the late Tony Scott brought to that other film. But, I don’t know, maybe people just really liked “Man On Fire.” The film opens on September 26th.
Speaking of words like ‘mediocre-at-best’ and ‘early fall dumping ground,’ Screen Gems have dropped a trailer, via Digital Spy, for something called “No Good Deed.” A movie that no one, possibly including the people in it, were aware existed before today, it sees Taraji P. Henson play a woman who finds herself menaced by an escaped convict (Idris Elba). So an excellent cast, doing what appears to be deeply tired slasher-movie material. We’d watch Elba (who’s also an executive producer here, and who recruited his “Luther” helmer Sam Miller to direct) and Henson in almost anything. Almost. Plus, this was meant to be released almost a year ago, so you know it’s good! The film will finally hit theaters on September 12th.
Finally, and also a movie that we were never aware existed until tonight, is a clip for DreamWorks Animation‘s “Home,” landing to tie in with animated monster “How To Train Your Dragon 2” this week. This sees an irritating alien (Jim Parsons) team up with a young Earth girl (Rihanna), with Steve Martin and Jennifer Lopez also among the supporting cast, and the whole thing, to tie these three nicely together, looks thoroughly unexceptional. The film lands on March 27, 2015.
Speaking of release dates, DreamWorks dropped a bunch of release dates to see them through to the point when the sun swallows the earth. Something called “Boss Baby” is first up on March 18, 2016, followed by “Captain Underpants” on January 13, 2017, and a Bollywood musical on March 10, 2017. Late that year sees “The Croods 2” on November 3, 2017, while the Australia-themed movie “Larrikin” hits February 16, 2018. That’ll be followed by “Madagascar 4” on May 18, 2018, and “Puss In Boots 2: Nine Lives & 40 Thieves” on November 2, 2018. You could literally conceive a child tomorrow and it would be old enough to see some of these later ones. So, you know, be safe kids.