For his third cinematic turn behind the camera as director, Denzel Washington chose some material he was intimately familiar with – August Wilson's Tony-winning play Fences. The first images from the film adaptation are online, and you can see Washington and co-star Viola Davis above.
Wilson's play tackles the story of Troy Maxon (Washington), a Pittsburgh sanitation employee who once dreamed of a baseball career only to be left facing down daily discrimination in a more menial line of work, while grappling with his lost ambitions. Davis plays Troy's wife, Rose.
Both actors won Tonys for their performances on stage, while the play took the Tony and Drama Desk Awards for Revival. Troy is a role first made famous by James Earl Jones during Fences' original run in 1987. "It reawakened me about the work, and my commitment to the work," Washington told us about his own take. "I said to myself: 'I've got to dig deeper'. Scott Rudin sent me the script August Wilson wrote - the only one of his plays that he wrote as a screenplay - to act and direct. I really do want to direct this."
Direct it he has; and the pictures are evidence. We'd expect a trailer soon enough, with the movie due in US cinemas on December 25 but no UK date on the books yet. Still, if Fences has turned out as well as Washington hopes, it'll be an awards contender.