DENZEL WASHINGTON'S GOT YOUR BACK AS “THE EQUALIZER”

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Two-time Academy Award®-winning actor Denzel Washington is a man constantly on the move. Never comfortable repeating himself or his successes, Washington always searches for new challenges through his numerous and varied film and stage portrayals. From “Glory” to “Cry Freedom”; from Shakespeare's “Richard III,” to “Training Day,” to his most recent critically acclaimed performance in “Flight,” Washington has amazed and entertained audiences with a rich array of characters distinctly his own.

Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures

Now, Washington stars in Columbia Pictures' action-thriller “The Equalizer” as the mysterious Robert McCall whose driving force is an innate sense of justice.

“Robert McCall has done a lot of bad things in his past, and he’s trying to get beyond that – he’s not proud of his past, and he’s trying to do better,” Washington explains. After leaving that past behind to lead a quiet life, he finds that desire for justice reawakened when a young girl – abandoned by the rest of the world – needs his help. “He didn’t like himself – he never lost his skills, he made a conscious decision to put that behind him. It’s when he meets an innocent young girl who is being abused, that he decides to do something about it.”

“McCall’s motivation is simple,” says Todd Black, a producer of the film. “When there is an injustice to an ordinary person, someone who can’t defend themselves, because they’re not capable or they don’t even know where to start, he will take care of it – violently or nonviolently.”

“We’d all like to believe that there’s a guy out there who could help us, if only we could find him,” says producer Jason Blumenthal. “If somehow we could reply to an ad on the Internet, desperately pleading for help when no one else would take that call. I’d like to believe that in my hour of need, somebody out there would listen to me – somebody would drop everything and help me, just because. And that’s the Equalizer.”

In his role as a producer, Washington worked with screenwriter Richard Wenk to realize the role he wanted to play. He says they kept asking the basic questions – “Who is he? What makes him tick? What are his flaws? What is he trying to get over? I think that long ago, he started out as a man who wanted to help people, and it turned into something else. He had to put that all behind him, to shut the door. And this young innocent opens that door again.”

Similarly, Washington felt great confidence in his director, Antoine Fuqua. “He’s very talented,” says the actor. “We sent him the material and he responded – we sat down and he had tons of ideas – and it was a done deal.” Later, on set, that confidence paid off. “Antoine had the vision for the film – he was doing close work with specialized cameras, all of that stuff. But I never worried about any of that. The camera is Antoine’s area of expertise – I don’t have to worry about that. I just worry about the acting,” he smiles.

Since “Training Day,” Fuqua and Washington have had several opportunities to re-team, but “The Equalizer” is the first that actually brought them back together. “We didn’t force it,” says Blumenthal. “It wasn’t ‘Let’s get the guys that did Training Day together.’ That’s not a reason to make a movie. I think Antoine was looking to make a movie where he could get back into character and really understand what makes a person tick. You can only build a great character if you’ve got an unbelievable actor, and of course, we had Denzel. So the challenge then became finding a character that Denzel could sink into and a world that Antoine could bring to life.”

Opening across the Philippines in October 01, 2014, “The Equalizer” is distributed by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Flight Gives Denzel Washington Double Best Actor Nominations

Photo courtesy of UIP

Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington) wakes before it's time to take off on a new flight, after an evening of drinking and sex with one of his plane's stewardesses, Katerina Marquez (Nadine Velazquez). Still trying to rouse himself from his hangover, his phone rings, and he answers a call from his ex-wife Deana (Garcelle Beauvais). Deana wants to discuss putting their son through a private school, but Whip doesn't want to discuss it at the moment, claiming he'll talk to her about it when he gets back to Atlanta.

While Katerina quickly heads off to the airport to prepare, Whip is unable to collect himself until he snorts a line of cocaine. This wakes him up, and he is next headed to the airport, where rain pounds the building and the airplanes. Whip does a quick inspection of the airplane, then enters into the airplane, speaking with a flight attendant named Margaret (Tamara Tunie), and meeting his co-pilot Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty).

Ken seems a little apprehensive of Whip (who is wearing sunglasses), but goes along with his story that he's alright to fly. The plane takes off through rain, and Whip pushes it higher and faster, attempting to find a break in the clouds, causing the ride to seem downright turbulent. However, once Whip finds a break in the storm, the plane stabilizes, and the passengers applaud.

Shortly after this, Whip addresses the passengers personally, while secretly pouring some mini-vodka bottles into a bottle of orange juice. After disposing of the bottles, Whip returns to the cockpit, and naps while Ken takes over.

A sudden jolt stirs Whip, before the plane suddenly pitches into an uncontrolled dive. Steering mechanisms don't respond, and numerous houses can be seen out the window. Staying relatively calm, Whip has the plane's fuel ditched, before proposing a crazy maneuver: roll the airplane! With Ken and Margaret's help, Whip inverts the plane upside down, leveling it out, before rolling it to crash-land on its belly in a field near a small church. The impact slams Whip's head against the steering mechanism, knocking him out.

Whip awakens in an Atlanta hospital with minor injuries. He is greeted by his old friend Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), who now represents the airline's pilots union. He tells Whip his heroism saved 96 of 102 people on board. An NTSB official informs him Katerina was among those killed, and that Evans has been put into a coma.

When he meets Charlie and attorney Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle), they explain that the NTSB performed a toxicology screen while he was unconscious in the hospital that revealed he was intoxicated, which could result in Whip going to prison on both drug and manslaughter charges. Lang promises to get the toxicology report ruled inadmissible on technical grounds, but Whip leaves in a fury and takes refuge in his father’s farm.

Watch how this action-drama unfolds and climaxes on a down-to-earth airline pilot hailed nationwide in America as a hero for saving the lives of almost everyone on his flight under the able  ‘navigation’ of Director Robert Zemeckis of Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and other great film credits’ fame.

 
Director Robert Zemeckis returns to pure live-action filmmaking with Flight, which also marks the first non-action/thriller to star two-time Oscar-winner Denzel Washington since he directed himself in the 2007 inspirational true-story drama The Great Debaters. As much excitement as there is among cinephiles to see both the director and actor getting back to their roots, so to speak.

Flight is a 2012 American drama film directed and co-produced by Robert Zemeckis starring Denzel Washington, with Don Cheadle, Melissa Leo, Bruce Greenwood, Kelly Reilly, and John Goodman. The film is distributed by United International Pictures thru Solar Entertainment Corporation.  Coming soon this February at your favorite theaters and cinemas.

Denzel Washington researching his character in “Safehouse”

Denzel Washington in Safehouse

When casting Safe House, producer Scott Stuber and  director Daniel Espinosa placed importance on avoiding tired tropes.  Stuber explains the rationale: “Action without character is boring.  The script read well because everything moves at a quick pace.  Then, when you sit and get to know these people, there’s a real depth to them.  We went after actors who could be in those moments and have the audience feel what these characters are feeling.”

As the producer and the director discussed their dream cast, Denzel Washington was brought up as their ideal Tobin Frost, the CIA’s most notorious traitor.  The two invited Washington (then starring on Broadway in the play Fences) to discuss the proposition.  Stuber recalls the meal: “At the end of lunch, Denzel stood up and said, ‘All right, we’re going to do this,’ and walked out.  I thought, ‘What?  Is he going to call his agent?  Is it a done deal?’  I wanted to make sure, so I called Denzel’s agent and he said, ‘I just got off the phone with him.  He’s doing the movie with you and Daniel.’  It was one of those rare, great moments in this business.”

Washington, who had a window in his schedule coinciding with preproduction, labored with the filmmakers to hone the project and the character of an operative who has spent the past nine years selling out the United States.  The actor offers what attracted him to the role of a man wanted for espionage on four continents: “I got the chance to see Daniel’s film Snabba Cash, and it had a unique style and was a very different film.  That made me very interested in him as a filmmaker. Scott, Daniel, David and I worked on developing the character.  Safe House was an opportunity to revisit ways of working what I used to do.  I invested heavily in the character and the story.”

As he prepared for the role, the performer went into full immersion mode.  Washington says: “I didn’t want to do a lot of CIA research because Tobin Frost wasn’t CIA anymore.  He hated everything about the CIA, and I wanted to discover his dark side.  Scott gave me some great books to read, one of which was ‘The Sociopath Next Door,’ which became my bible that I would refer to in developing the character.  I felt Tobin was a sociopath.  When you think ‘sociopath,’ you think violence, and the majority of sociopaths aren’t violent but they want to win and manipulate.  I thought he was a great liar, a great manipulator and perfect for the CIA.”

The filmmakers valued the actor’s work ethic on the project.  Offers Espinosa: “Denzel is a master.  He works harder than any actor I’ve ever met.  When he decided to do the movie, he thoroughly researched and spent about a half a year studying his character before we even shot.  When he got on set, no matter what the situation in front of him was, he reacted as the character that he was playing.”

With Washington attached, the team began the search to find Matt Weston played by Ryan Reynolds, the man responsible for his house guest.  For Espinosa, it is the contrast between and the evolution of Frost and Weston that distinguish the story.  Notes the director: “Matt is a guy who has a lot of dreams.  He believes that he can maintain a relationship with his girlfriend and have a somewhat normal life, while at the same time, coming closer to his goal of becoming a full-blown CIA case officer.  He clings to the notion that you can be a strong, ethical, moral person while working in his chosen field.  There is no gray area.  Frost, however, is well beyond any such notion.”

What attracted you to this film?

My late agent, Ed Limato, passed away last July and this was the last project that he wanted me to take a look at it.  I just felt I should do it because I knew it was the last thing he wanted me to do.

Did you have a hand in developing the story?

Daniel Espinosa (director), Scott Stuber (producer), three different writers and I worked on the story for months.  We wanted to keep going deeper, making more sense out it.  I’m a logic monster.  I always want to know why things happen the way they do.

How is it working with director Daniel Espinosa?

Daniel is a fine filmmaker. He did SNABBA CASH and it’s a really interesting film. I’m sure Hollywood is looking at Daniel as the new hot guy.  He’s very passionate and very talented.

What’s been the most difficult aspect of filming on SAFE HOUSE?

I’ve got a bad knee and there’s been a lot of running, jumping and fighting. And I was water-boarded. Having somebody poor water up your nose when you’re upside down is kind of tough.

Do you see your character as a villain?

I see him as a sociopath. I’ve been researching and learned that 80% of sociopaths aren’t violent, they just want to dominate.  Tobin doesn’t think he’s a villain.  He thinks he’s right and everybody else is wrong.

“SAFEHOUSE”  Showing on February 10, nationwide.

Released and distributed by United International Pictures through

Solar Entertainment Corp.