According to Variety, Denzel Washington will reprise Frank Sinatra’s role in Paramount Pictures’ updated remake of The Manchurian Candidate. No director is attached to the remake, which was written by Dan Pyne (The Sum of All Fears). inatra starred in the original, directed by John Frankenheimer, opposite Angela Lansbury and Laurence Harvey. Adapted by George Axelrod from the 1959 novel by Richard Condon, "Candidate" combined a political thriller with black-hearted satire of anti-communist hysteria.