Rupert Wyatt Won't Make 'The Equalizer' After All

Briefly: Sony and Denzel Washington want to make a new/updated version of the classic '80s TV series The Equalizer. It's pretty easy to see why, as the role of a former intelligence agent who offers his skills pro bono to people in need seems like something that could very easily blend Washington's appeal with modern economic concerns to achieve some of the same popularity of a film like Taken.

But getting someone to direct the film hasn't been a quick process. The project has been in development for a while, but since Denzel came on it has seen the director's chair occupied for a while by Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Bronson). He moved on earlier this year. More recently, it looked like Rupert Wyatt (The Escapist, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) would make the film. But schedules didn't work out, and Wyatt moved on. That leaves Sony looking for someone new.

Wyatt has a couple other big projects to do: he's directing some TV (the pilot of Turn, for AMC) and just landed Nicholas Hoult to play the lead in his film adaptation of the novel Birdsong. [Deadline]