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Nine years in development hell paid off handsomely for THE EQUALIZER, which became a blockbuster franchise starring Denzel Washington.

The action thriller from Sony/Village Roadshow Pictures, which opened Sept. 26, 2014, was directed by Antoine Fuqua (TRAINING DAY) and written by Richard Wenk (THE EXPENDABLES 2). It was based on the hit TV series that aired on CBS from 1985-89 and starred Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former intelligence agent with a cryptic past.

EQUALIZER surfaced as a possible movie project in April 2005 when producer Mace Neufeld (CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER) expressed interest in the material. He partnered with home screen EQUALIZER co-creator Michael Sloan & producer Tony Eldridge to adapt their series to the big screen.

By December, however, The Weinstein Company owned the movie rights. In June 2007, news reports had TWC bringing on board two novelists — Michael Connelly (BLOOD WORK) & Terill Lee (SHOOTERS) — to write a  screenplay that Paul McGuigan (WICKER PARK) would direct.

All was quiet on the EQUALIZER front in 2010 and TWC sold the movie rights to Neufeld & Escape Artists, who hired writer-director Paul Haggis (CRASH) and Russell Crowe to play McCall. Things dragged on and Haggis & Crowe left to fulfill other commitments.

Some forward momentum began when Washington read the screenplay and showed interest in playing McCall. In December 2011, Washington was cast. Nicolas Winding Refn (VALHALLA RISING) was to direct, but he departed after a month of reportedly struggling to finalize his deal. Then the producers asked Rupert Wyatt (RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES), but he passed because of schedule conflicts.

Washington proposed having Fuqua direct, reuniting them after their 2001 hit TRAINING DAY, for which Washington won the best lead actor Oscar. They were the right combination of directing and star power to put EQUALIZER on track for success. Looking back at how hard it was to get EQUALIZER made, Washington has said his reluctance to sign on was due to the difficulty of finding the right director.

Principal photography in Massachusetts was done from May – September 2013. EQUALIZER world premiered Sept. 7, 2014 at the Toronto International Film Festival on and opened in theatres Sept. 26. Produced for $55M, it grossed $192.3M worldwide.

And it didn’t end there. EQUALIZER 2 opened July 20, 2018, again starring  Washington with Fuqua directing. It cost $62M to produce and did $190.4M worldwide.

EQUALIZER 3, which also reteamed Fuqua & Washington, hit theatres Sept. 1, 2023. With a production budget of  $70M to produce, it did $191.1M globally.