Melissa Leo and Denzel Washington were only on screen together for a very brief time when they both starred in Robert Zemeckis' 2012 drama Flight, but hopefully when they reunite in the upcoming adaptation of the television series The Equalizer they'll actually get more than a handful of scenes. Deadline is reporting that the Oscar winning actress has signed on for the project and will play a former handler of Washington's character back when he worked as a counter-terrorism operative. The film is being directed by Antoine Fuqua, with whom Leo just worked on Olympus Has Fallen.
Washington will star in the movie as a man named McCalll, a retired covert operative who gets into the business of helping people in helpless situations. The site says that Leo's character will provide him with "intelligence about who he is facing when he runs up against a new adversary." As reported earlier this month, said adversary will be played by New Zealand actor Marton Csokas. There has also bee talk about Chloe Moretz playing a teen prostitute in the film, similar to Jodie Foster's role in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
The project was in headlines a lot over the last couple months as it searched for a director. At the start it looked as though the film would be directed by Drive's Nicolas Winding Refn, but he ended up walking away. Then it was Rise of the Planet of the Ape's Rupert Wyatt who entered talks and then dropped out. Fuqua, who directed Washington to an Oscar in 2001's Training Day, came aboard in late March.
Earlier this week Leo also signed on for the one-season series Wayward Pines, which will co-star Matt Dillon. She will likely next be seen along with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall in the September drama Prisoners.
