Cast: Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Patrick

Synopsis: A young CIA agent is tasked with looking after a fugitive in a safe house. But when the safe house is attacked, he finds himself on the run with his charge.

Release Date: February 10, 2012

First, there was The Green Lantern. Reynold’s third foray into the comic book movie genre and his biggest role to date. Unlike Thor, which was released a few weeks before, Lantern was not a runaway hit. Poor reviews and bad marketing sealed this film’s fate and it didn’t not earn back its $200 million budget. Then there was The Change-Up. Which also suffered from lame marketing that didn’t highlight the film’s strengths. Reynolds co-starred with Jason Bateman in the gross-out comedy about people getting pooped on. Which is exactly what happened to The Change-Up at the box office, earning only $34 million dollars in three weeks of release like some kind of jerk.

So what’s next for Reynolds after back-to-back summer bombs? The SJ Detectives did a little digging to find out what Reynolds has been up to over the last four days since the summer movie season ended.

Sadly, Reynolds is taking the news pretty hard and has sank into a deep depression. He’ taken to sleeping in the coffin used to film Buried and has grown a beard — a style he has only worn in darker films like The Amityville Horror and Blade: Trinity. He’s also been spotted hanging around the campus where Van Wilder was filmed, attempting to ingratiate himself to the incoming freshmen with the promise of showing them the way to a laid-back, college existence. Perhaps not surprisingly, Kal Penn has also been seen hanging around. At last report, Campus Public Safety had placed a boot on his golf cart.

People Magazine reports that he’s been seen stopping by Sandra Bullock‘s house unexpectedly. Though gossips are speculating a romance between the now single former co-stars, this is clearly a case of one friend supporting and counseling another. Reynolds has had it rough recently and Bullock knows all too well what it feels like to be publicly embarrassed. Lest we forget what Bullock suffered? That’s right. I refer of course to the double whallup of Speed 2: Cruise Control and Hope Floats.

What Reynolds needs to remember is that it’s not his fault. He’s an actor. He did his part by reading the lines and being polite to Kathie Lee and Hoda. Despite the public reaction, word of mouth is that he was very funny in The Change-Up and his head did a wonderful job as the Lantern. What he needs now is a more lighthearted romantic comedy to ease him back into the audience’s good graces.  Then he can move back into action movies. Then a tense hospital/legal drama. This method has worked for Matthew McConaughey for years. And if he can achieve a hit without calling upon Kate Hudson, he truly is a master.

Until that time, he’ll have to be content with being in the physical prime of his life, driving his awesome motorcycle around, getting occasional modeling work, and dating insanely hot women. It will be tough. But he’ll pull through.

Kinnaman, who is the son of Timothy Olyphant and Skeet Ulrich (not confirmed), is no stranger to Safe House director Daniel Espinosa‘s style. The two worked together on Espinosa’s breakout film Snabba Cash, and apparently that was the start of a beautiful relationship. Kinnaman has scored himself a plum role in the film as the guy who actually runs the safe house where Washington and Reynolds show up. Does that mean he gets a bullet in the head? Or is he corrupt?? Either way, I’m betting on bullet in the head. (THR)

She’s joining Denzel Washington, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, Robert Patrick and Liam Cunningham in the Daniel Espinosa-directed movie. She did a pretty good job playing a kind-of-similar character in Source Code, and has made a bit of a niche for herself playing professional, attractive women in thrillers like The Departed. So, good casting, Hollywood casting people! This is why they pay you the big bucks. (Deadline)

Fares will play an assassin hired to take out  Washington and any Ryan Reynoldses that try to get in his way. Fares had better hope he has the cunning required to pull off the mission. The ragtag team of Reynolds and Washington may not look like much, but when they can put their differences aside, that young agent and that experienced old timer might just have what it takes to see the end credits. (Latino Review)

In the movie, Ryan Reynolds plays a CIA agent who needs to protect criminal Denzel Washington from assassins, after Reynold’s safe house is compromised. Will Ryan Reynolds‘ character secretly turn out to be a superhero, like all the other roles he’s been playing lately? We can only hope the Green Lantern shows up, so Hal Jordan and Alastor Moody can team up to fight T-1000. If that’s what’s gonna happen, I’ll be there opening night. (TheWrap)

Arnezeder isn’t known on these shores but is taking France by storm after her performance as an amateur singer trying to save her beloved theater in Paris 36. Sounds like the French equivalent to Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo.

If the current rewrite works out, the producers will approach Jeff Bridges to play a Deputy Vice Director at the FBI. Possibly one with a secret hippie past? (Latino Review)

_Trippy.

It seems Ryan Reynolds’s washboard abs are nabbing all the juicy roles these days. Green Lantern himself has emerged as the front runner to play opposite Denzel Washington in Safe House. Washington signed on a few weeks ago as the film’s villain, and Reynolds would be the hero, "a young CIA agent who must transport a dangerous criminal to safety after both are attacked at a safe house."

Some very talented young actors have been vying for the role, including Shia LeBeouf, Taylor Kitsch, Chris Pine, Sam Worthington, Garrett Hedlund, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Chris Hemsworth, and Jake Gyllenhaal. No final decision has been made, so we can’t give Reynolds the crown just yet. I have it on good authority that Universal Studios will be closing down the gym at a local YMCA to award the role. All of the actors will be filed in and a broken pool cue dropped in the middle of them. My money’s still on Deadpool. (Deadline)

_Birdie.

Denzel Washington is in talks to star in Safe House, an original spy thriller set in South Africa, but let’s not make this a racial thing. The script, written by David Guggenheim, "follows a young U.S. intelligence agent who must go on the run with a newly arrived prisoner (Denzel’s potential role) after his titular safe house comes under attack — think of a mix between Collateral and Three Days of the Condor." Sounds more like a mix between Bulletproof and Spy Hard. Guggenheim sparked a bidding war with the script this past winter.

A spy thriller wouldn’t be my next project choice for Denzel, but I don’t commission 10% of his salary to tell him what sets to show up on. The overall concept for Safe House seems stale though, and I can’t understand why studios would clamor over one another to secure it. Maybe Denzel knows something I don’t. Like where I put my car keys. I gotta get out of this trunk before the sun sets. The desert gets chilly at night. (Vulture)