Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive”) exited the film adaptation of “The Equalizer” a few months back, leaving Sony with the difficult exercise of finding someone just as talented to make that movie.
Seems they’ve found someone : Rupert Wyatt, director of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”.

“The Equalizer”, based on the classic ’80s TV series, stars Denzel Washington as “Robert McCall, the retired intelligence officer who helps the powerless. In the movie version, he is living a quiet life while working at a Home Depot, when one of his acts of kindness gets him embroiled with the Russian mob”, says THR.

The trade says Wyatt got the job over a number of others, including “Battleship” director Pete Berg.

Winding Refn apparently exited “The Equalizer” because he wasn’t seeing eye-to-eye with Denzel Washington, so hopefully Wyatt and the Oscar Winning actor are on the same page.