Oldman vs. Denzel

While it’s nice to see him occasionally on the side of the angels, Gary Oldman is at his goddamn best doing scenery-chewing evil.

Oldman is slipping into his villain britches for THE BOOK OF ELI, a Western-flavored post-apocalyptic sci-fi flick from the long-absent Hughes Brothers (DEAD PRESIDENTS, FROM HELL). The movie, from writer Gary Whitta, stars Denzel Washington as the hero tasked with protecting a sacred book that could save the tattered remnants of humanity.

Unsurprisingly, the more interesting role may belong to Oldman, who’ll play “the despot of a small makeshift town deficient of standard necessities, services, and most noticeably, laws.” Sounds perfect for gnawing the landscape!