Denzel Washington Sets New Crime Thriller With Mission: Impossible Director

Published Oct 20, 2026, 6:30 PM EDT Matthew Rudoy is one of ScreenRant's Movie & TV News Editors. He covers the latest in movie & TV news, with a focus on major franchises like Star Wars, The Boys, and Game of Thrones, and also writes some features and reviews. He wrote lists for ScreenRant from 2017-2022, became a news writer in 2023, a senior staff writer in 2024, and an editor in 2025. Denzel Washington is returning to the crime thriller genre. Throughout the actor's prolific career, there has been no shortage of great Denzel Washington crime thriller movies, including Man on Fire, The Equalizer and its sequels, Déjà Vu, Devil in a Blue Dress, Inside Man, American Gangster, and Training Day. Along with many of these films becoming box office hits, and in the case of The Equalizer spawning a franchise, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor in recognition of his performance in Training Day. According to Deadline, Washington has now joined a new crime thriller movie directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who has helmed numerous films in the Mission: Impossible franchise. The movie does not have a title as of this writing, but was previously referred to as The Frame, and is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios and Scott Stuber's United Artists. Production is expected to start in New Jersey in November, and it will be released in theaters on October 1, 2027. Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner are writing the script, which follows a former police detective serving a life sentence in prison and who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. With only six months left to live, he is released and reunites with his estranged daughter and meets a grandson whose existence he has only just discovered. While trying to make amends and move forward, his dark past comes back to haunt him. Washington is able to join this project due to pre-production being paused on Netflix and Antonie Fuqua's Hannibal film due to budgetary concerns. His most recent movies were 2024's Gladiator II and 2025's Highest 2 Lowest. Another confirmed upcoming movie is Netflix's The Take, which was previously titled Here Comes the Flood, starring Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones and slated for a 2027 release. There is also the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Black Panther 3, which was given a December 15, 2028 release date this year and confirmation of David Jonsson taking on the role of T'Challa's son, along with Letitia Wright and Winston Duke returning to reprise their respective roles of Shuri and M'Baku. Rearrange the movies into the correct US release order. As for McQuarrie, he is coming off a long run of movies that he directed or wrote starring Tom Cruise, including Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, The Mummy, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. He and Cruise are focusing on separate projects now, giving the filmmaker the opportunity to make this new crime thriller with Washington in the lead role. When the new Denzel Washington movie releases in theaters on October 1, 2027, it will be opening opposite Warner Bros.' The Great Beyond, which is the first film J.J. Abrams has directed since 2019's The Rise of Skywalker. It stars Jenna Ortega and Glen Powell and was originally scheduled for theatrical release on November 13, 2026 before being pushed to the date that previously belonged to DC and Matt Reeves' The Batman: Part II, which was delayed until February 18, 2028. Birthdate December 28, 1954 Birthplace Mount Vernon, New York, USA