Antoine Fuqua Dreams Of Denzel Being His Nuevo SCARFACE
One of the most successful director/star pairings of the modern era is Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington, whose Equalizer 2 (a movie I really enjoyed) made another mint at the box office (debuting at #1 and still holding pretty strong). The two have won an Academy Award together (for Denzel's iconic dirty detective Alonzo Harris in Training Day), traveled to the Old West (with their Magnificent Seven remake), and now have an OCD Paul Kersey of their own in the two-time bonecrushing champ Robert McCall.
So, what does the pair have up their sleeves for their next collaboration? If it were up to Fuqua, he'd be remolding Tony Montana in Washington's image. As the large-caliber auteur told THR recently about his long-gestating Scarface remake (which was originally set to star Diego Luna in the role Al Pacino made famous):
“My dream is for him to be Scarface. He laughs sometimes and he kind of goes, “'(Al) Pacino did a great job! I don’t want to do that.'”
First off, this writer wasn't even sure that Fuqua was still working on Scarface anymore (as he supposedly backed out of the project a year and a half ago), and the way his response is phrased, it's probably just a bit of artistic pipe-dreaming. However, how fucking cool would a Denzel Washington take on Montana be, especially under Fuqua's direction? He really lets his star go as big as humanly possible (and then some), and the cocaine king would invite full-scale, world-smashing histrionics the likes of which only a marquee idol of Washington's caliber could deliver.
Fuqua continued on in the interview about the potential for a third Equalizer picture, saying:
"I'm looking forward to The Equalizer 3, if that happens. I would love for it to take place internationally, I think Denzel would be a great James Bond-type character."
All of these things sound good to me, especially if Equalizer 3 expands upon the international flavor hinted at in the second film, and combines McCall's Voorhees-esque murderous tendencies with a Black James Bond type. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to daydream about this duo going all Brian De Palma for a minute as Denzel shoots rocket launchers while screaming "motherfucker!" at the top of his lungs.
The Equalizer 2 is in theaters now. Go double feature it with Mission: Impossible - Fallout like I did and have the best day possible.