Denzel Washington, Christopher McQuarrie Team for Original Thriller at Amazon MGM, United Artists

Denzel Washington was to have starred in an ambitious Netflix movie centered on rebellious general Hannibal until its high cost squashed it.

And after a long, long collaborative stint with Tom Cruise on the Mission: Impossible movies, Christopher McQuarrie is taking a break from the actor and focusing on new projects.

With both of their schedules open, the actor and filmmaker have found each other for a crime thriller set up at Amazon MGM Studios and Scott Stuber’s United Artists.

Washington will star in the feature, currently untitled but which was once referred to as The Frame, with McQuarrie directing.

Amazon has greenlit the feature and will give it a theatrical release, dating it for Oct. 1, 2027. The project has been operating under the radar but will see cameras roll starting November in New Jersey.

Written by Scott Barkan and Gregg Zehentner (Into the Dark, Edge of Fear), the thriller centers on a former police detective serving a life sentence who is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Granted compassionate release with six months to live, he returns home to the estranged daughter he left behind and a grandson he never knew existed. Like most honorable ex-cons, he only wants to make amends and forget his dark past. But, as Amazon’s logline intones, his dark past has not forgotten him. (Cue dramatic sound effect.)

The producer roll call is a full prison yard’s worth of inmates. McQuarrie will produce alongside Heather McQuarrie, as well as Stuber and Nick Nesbitt for United Artists. Joseph Restaino of Hungry Bull Productions and Reza Moheet and Norman Aladjem of Mainstay Entertainment are also producing as are Katia Washington and Tommy Harper.

Hungry Bull Productions’ Tony Stopperan, Mainstay Entertainment’s Tim Honigman, and Joe Guest will serve as executive producers.

Washington last starred in Highest 2 Lowest for director Spike Lee and AppleTV. Up next, he will star in Netflix’s The Take (formerly known as Here Comes the Flood), alongside Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones. The film is slated to release in 2027.

Since 2012, McQuarrie has directed five movies, all of them starring Cruise. The last one was 2025’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. That doesn’t include the screenplays or producing work on Cruise pics Top Gun: Maverick, The Mummy and Edge of Tomorrow. He is currently in the midst of setting up a feature version of video game Battlefield at Sony, which he would direct and would star Michael B. Jordan.

Washington is repped by WME. McQuarrie is repped by CAA and Greenberg Glusker.