Rupert Wyatt in Talks to Direct Denzel Washington in ‘The Equalizer’

After doing a terrific job reinvigorating a dying franchise with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes, director Rupert Wyatt made the ballsy decision to step down from directing the sequel because he didn’t feel like he could meet Fox’s hasty release date. (Cloverfield helmer Matt Reeves eventually took over.) We’ve been anxious to see what Wyatt will do next, and though he’s had a few projects percolating since then, it seems like he may have finally found his next gig. Deadline reports that he’s in talks to direct The Equalizer, the Denzel Washington action movie that Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn vacated last month. Read on! Once set to be a reunion piece for Russell Crowe and Paul Haggis, The Equalizer gained Denzel as its leading man in late 2011 and has been sputtering through development ever since. The film is a riff on the 80s television show of the same name, featuring a solitary former special ops badass …