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Denzel Washington May Be Planning A Trip To The Inner City With Nightcrawler’s Dan Gilroy

Upcoming legal drama Inner City has roped in Denzel Washington for a lead role, according to Variety.

Denzel Washington in The Equalizer

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Long-time screenwriter Dan Gilroy made a real splash with Nightcrawler in 2014, his directorial debut that thrust Jake Gyllenhaal into the role of a tortured, borderline sociopath crime paparazzo who stalked the streets of Los Angeles, chasing accidents and other tragedies as they happened in real time.

Lauded with praise across the board, there’s mooted excitement circling his latest, wholly original project Inner City as it begins to take shape. Pitched as a legal drama in the vein of Paul Newman’s The Verdict, Gilroy’s sophomore effort is reportedly on the verge of landing The Equalizer star Denzel Washington.

Per Variety, it’s understood negotiations are ongoing for a role that could see Washington muscle his way into Oscar territory once more, something that we haven’t necessarily seen from the esteemed acting great since Flight four years ago. In fact, Inner City appears to fall into a similar, character-driven bracket as Robert Zemeckis’ airborne thriller, as Washington’s lawyer comes to terms with an internal switchover that could bring about a massive shake-up at his company.

Sources close to Variety claim that studios are already circling Dan Gilroy’s embryonic drama – and given that Nightcrawler pulled in $32 million domestically off the back of a $8.5 million budget, that’s not terribly surprising. Netflix is said to be one of those interested parties, and it’ll be fascinating to see how things pan out for Inner City as we begin to approach both TIFF 2016 and the New York Film Festival late next month.

Rose Creek beckons for Denzel Washington, however, who can next be seen as a member of The Magnificent Seven when Antoine Fuqua’s reboot trots into theaters on September 23.