Cop Thriller 'Little Things' Will See Denzel Washington Hunting A Serial Killer
Denzel Washington has played a lot of cops in his career, and now he's set to do it again. Washington will star in the cop thriller Little Things, from a script by John Lee Hancock (The Highwaymen). The acclaimed actor will play a deputy sheriff who teams up with a detective in order to track down a serial killer. As is often the case with cops hunting killers, Washington's character has some dark secrets from his past that he must deal with. More on the Little Things movie below.Variety broke the news about Denzel Washington joining the Little Things movie. John Lee Hancock, who directed The Blind Side, The Founder, and the upcoming Netflix movie The Highwaymen, wrote the script, and is considering directing as well – although that's not official yet. Here's the Little Things synopsis, per Variety:
The story follows a burned-out Kern County deputy sheriff named Deke, played by Washington, who teams with a crack LASD detective, Baxter, to reel in a wily serial killer. Deke's nose for the "little things" proves eerily accurate, but his willingness to circumvent the rules embroils Baxter in a soul-shattering dilemma. Meanwhile, Deke must wrestle with a dark secret from his past.
Reading that synopsis makes me very sad Tony Scott isn't still with us, because this sounds like exactly the type of movie he could've knocked out of the park with frequent collaborator Washington.
With Washington on board, Warner Bros. will likely look for another big star to play opposite him as Baxter. This will be Washington's first acting gig since last year's ultra-violent sequel The Equalizer 2. Meanwhile, Washington is also expected to direct Michael B. Jordan in the drama Journal of Jordan, but Little Things will likely come first.
I wouldn't call the aforementioned plot of Little Things particularly original, but Washington is an actor who always brings his A-game, no matter the material. He can play cop characters in his sleep at this point, but that doesn't mean he'll phone it in. Word on the street is that the Little Things script has similarities to Training Day, which won Washington a Best Actor Oscar. I don't entirely get the comparison from the description, but perhaps it relates to the "dark secret" from Washington's character's past. And hey, maybe they can get Ethan Hawke to play Detective Baxter, and make this a full-blown Training Day reunion.