Denzel Washington To Play Familier Role In Post Apocalyptic Shovel Ready
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Denzel Washington plays a pretty convincing badass. Just check out movies like Training Day and Ricochet for some concrete proof. Now it appears that he’s may ply his ass kicking trade in the upcoming science fiction film Shovel Ready for Warner Bros. That’s also happens to be a damn good title for a futuristic tough guy movie.
Deadline reports that the Oscar-winner is in early talks for the role. Based on the yet-to-be-released novel by New York Times Magazine editor Adam Sternbergh, Shovel Ready is set in the bombed-out New York City of the near future. Washington would play a hitman-for-hire who is contracted to be the bodyguard for the young daughter of a crazy ass evangelical preacher. You can bet that even this hardened, grizzled assassin can’t resist the charms of this particular little girl. They’re going to become unlikely friends and everyone will hug.
With the post-apocalyptic setting and the protecting a precocious little girl, Shovel Ready sounds like a synthesis of two of his roles in two previous films, Book of Eli and Man on Fire. Granted it is still early in the game, and no one has actually read the book, but that’s the general idea you get from this description.
There also appears to by dystopian shades to Shovel Ready. According to the article, “most of the population escapes reality by tapping into a digital fantasy world.” That element, large scale cultural escapism, calls to mind sci-fi properties from Brave New World to Strange Days, among numerous others.
While this project is still in its infancy—the book won’t even hit bookstores until January 2014—Shovel Ready sounds awesome thus far. Denzel Washington storming around a corrupt, rubble-strewn New York, kicking ass and taking names? Yes please. Hell, even if he doesn’t jump all over this movie, it should still be a damn fine time.
