A Denzel Washington Crime Thriller Was Originally Meant For Clint Eastwood

There are five movies in the "Dirty Harry" series, in which Clint Eastwood embodies Inspector Harry Callahan, who emerges as an antihero figure unafraid to bend the rules. Although Callahan's methods are unorthodox, they are incredibly effective. "Go ahead, make my day," he drawls before brandishing a gun to apprehend criminals. When the "Dirty Harry" franchise was still looking for potential scripts, Fred Dekker — who penned the screenplay for 2018's "The Predator" — wrote a spec script that ended up being turned down by Eastwood. What exactly happened here?

Per Dekker himself, this rejected spec script for the "Dirty Harry" franchise was remodeled later into the 1991 crime thriller, "Ricochet," with Denzel Washington playing the lead role originally intended for Eastwood. Dekker told The Flashback Files that he had accidentally mirrored the plot of "Cape Fear" (which he claims to have not seen at the time) for his "Dirty Harry" installment and that Eastwood deemed the plot "too grim":

"I'm a huge Eastwood fan. He's one of my favorite movie stars. I think that [the] 'Dirty Harry' character was lightning in a bottle because after the first two, the rest of the movies just weren't up to snuff. So, I thought I would write a spec script [...] My producer Joel Silver claims to have sent it to Clint, but that doesn't make any sense. Joel had his own production company. He could just make it himself, which he did. He said that Clint thought it was "too grim" for him.

As "Ricochet" was released by the end of 1991, Dekker must have been referring to the 1962 version of "Cape Fear" starring Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum, instead of the Martin Scorsese remake of the same name, which hit theaters on November 15, 1991. In both the original and the remake, the basic premise positions an attorney being stalked by a violent psychopath, who returns to exact revenge. Dekker had intended this basic premise for his "Dirty Harry" script, but after the project fell through, "Ricochet" built its narrative around this core idea.

Before "Die Hard" screenwriter Stephen de Souza rewrote the script for "Ricochet" while still retaining Dekker's base premise, the "Night of the Creeps" director was briefly attached to it. However, he failed to convince Kurt Russell to be a part of the film, and the directorial responsibilities were transferred to Russell Mulcahy of "Highlander" fame. Here's what Dekker had to say about the Kurt Russell fumble:

"There were about five seconds when I was going to direct it ['Ricochet']. I met with Kurt Russell about playing the cop ... Before I went into that office, I should have said: 'I have to convince Kurt Russell to do this movie!' But I failed to win him over."

Once Mulcahy got on board, Washington was cast as Nick Styles, a rookie LAPD officer and law student who stumbles upon a mob execution led by Earl Talbot Blake (John Lithgow). After Styles puts an end to Blake's schemes, the latter is arrested and sent to prison, while Styles is hailed as a hero after a highly-televised trial. What unfolds after is Blake's imminent return several years later, armed with a vicious plan to enact revenge and make Styles pay.Blake goes after everyone Styles loves, and plays dirty to get an upper hand in this unhinged game of cat-and-mouse.

Although "Ricochet" has some decent moments, most of which are fleshed out by convincing lead performances, its self-serious vignettes feel out of place for the most part. The fact that Scorsese's "Cape Fear" was released during the same autumn did not do the film any favors, as the remake was a darker, seedier reimagination of the source material, with a lot of complex character motivations thrown into the mix. "Ricochet" lacks the finesse required to pull off the unpredictable edge imbued in Lithgow's turn as Blake, as the world around him doesn't reflect his depravity, and is too steeped in black-and-white morality. Having said that, the film's goofy, ridiculous humor surprisingly salvages it from being a slog, and it is worth a watch for this reason alone.