While not one of Denzel Washington’s biggest hits, 2004’s Man on Fire has gained a huge following just for how badass he is in it. Even the cover image, with Denzel looking like a dude you do not want to fuck with as he protects a young Dakota Fanning, is iconic. Itself a remake of a 1987 Italian film (that featured Scott Glenn and Joe Pesci!), Man on Fire is getting yet another redo, only this time as a series on Netflix.
THR reports that Netflix has ordered up an eight-episode Man on Fire series adaptation from Halo’s Kyle Killen. Killen will write, exec-produce, and act as showrunner. The series will be based on Man on Fire and The Perfect Kill, the first two novels by author A. J. Quinnell. Five novels were written featuring the lead character Creasy, a former soldier-turned-mercenary and bodyguard. So if this show is a hit, don’t be surprised to see more books adapted.
The big question is who will they get to play Creasy? Denzel set a pretty high standard, and so did Fanning as the young girl he’s charged with protecting. Tough shoes to fill, but as we saw with the recent Jack Reacher series, replacing a superstar actor can be done and done extremely well.