Despite Sony’s reported confidence in the Denzel Washington-starring film adaptation of ‘80s series The Equalizer, the studio has been rolling out the marketing for the movie slowly, starting with posters and pics and now ramping up to a trailer.
With his Training Day director Antoine Fuqua calling the shots, Washington here stars as a slightly different take on Robert McCall, the retired intelligence officer played on the small screen by Edward Woodward, who decides to atone for his past sins by helping the hopeless.
Working quietly at a Home Depot, McCall finds himself drawn into the life of a crusading vigilante when he helps out a young prostitute (Chloe Moretz). His actions draw the ire of the Russian mafia, and in particular a brutal fixer played by Marton Csokas.
While McCall could always take care of himself on TV, Washington’s version looks like the sort of man who can walk into a room full of armed henchmen and take them all out in a matter of seconds, all the while chiding himself for not matching his personal best mobster take-down time. It’s this scene, incidentally, that we saw at CinemaCon in March, and which proved that Washington could deliver the goods as McCall. Whether the film itself lives up to the faith is something we’ll find out on October 10.