'The Little Things' First Look: Denzel Washington And Jared Leto Star In Mystery Thriller

Director John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side, The Founder) is back with a new psychological thriller called The Little Things, which follows a pair of police officers (played by Oscar winners Denzel Washington and future Bond villain Rami Malek) as they try to solve a murder in Los Angeles.

Oscar winner Jared Leto plays one of the duo's primary suspects, and now a first look image shows Washington – cool as ever – coming face to face with Leto's character.

Entertainment Weekly debuted this The Little Things first look image, and spoke with Leto about his character, the bizarrely named "Albert Sparma." Leto describes Sparma as "an unusual guy. He's an outsider, a black sheep, someone who's stuck in a part of life that maybe he feels like he doesn't deserve. He's been blessed and cursed with a significant amount of intelligence and wit, but doesn't really fit into society so well." With a character profile like that, it sounds like those fictional police officers should be keeping a close eye on this dude.

John Lee Hancock previously directed films like The Rookie, The Alamo, Saving Mr. Banks, and most recently The Highwaymen, a Netflix crime story about a pair of detectives who brought down notorious criminals Bonnie and Clyde. It seems as if Hancock liked that dynamic, because he's returning to it here – albeit in a more modern L.A. setting. Apparently, the film largely takes place in the less famous parts of Los Angeles which don't often end up on film. "We saw a side of L.A. that doesn't really get a light shone on it too often — the back alleys and the vacant lots — and that was fascinating," Leto told EW, calling the city "a full-on character in the film."

The Little Things is one of the Warner Bros. titles which will be released in theaters and on HBO Max at the same time in 2021, a decision which sparked a massive backlash in Hollywood and caused the agents of stars like Denzel Washington to get up in arms about not being consulted about the decision beforehand. It seems likely that lawsuits will be filed against the studio (Legendary Entertainment is particularly displeased about the fate of Dune and Godzilla vs. Kong), but as we wait to see what effect the courts might have on all this, The Little Things will be debuting in theaters and on HBO Max on January 29, 2021.