Sony Pictures’ adaptation of the TV series, The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington, will be released on September 26, 2014.

Chloe Moretz, Marton Csokas and Melissa Leo, co-star with Washington in the film, which, by the way, is being directed by Washington’s Training Day helmer, Antoine Fuqua, from a script written by Richard Wenk. 

Director Nicolas Winding Refn had the job initially, but then walked away from it, after he and the studio couldn’t reach an agreement. 

The reportedly $50 million project is said to be designed to launch the first film franchise for Mr Washington – hence, if the first film does well, expect sequels. One has already been reportedly greenlit, even though the first film hasn’t been released yet. It was said to have scored particularly well with test audience.

The TV series the film is based on was set in New York, and centered on a former secret agent (played by the late Edward Woodward) with a “mysterious past” who tries to atone for past sins by offering, free of charge, his services as an investigator, aided by a diverse group of other sometimes-mysterious contacts (some of whom date back to his spying days).

In the film adaptation, Washington plays Robert McCall, a retired intelligence operator who faked his own death to live under the radar. But after finding a young woman (played by Chloe Moretz) in trouble with the Russian mob, he returns to action to use his extreme tactics for good.

With Fuqua helming, this probably means we should expect a more hard-hitting, raw, gritty, R-rated kind of Equalizer, and not the PG/PG-13 series that was the TV show. This’ll probably be more like Denzel Washington in Man On Fire mode.

With September looming, no teaser/trailer for the upcoming film yet; but we have your first look at a teaser poster below: