Denzel Washington circling lead role in Dan Gilroy's Inner City

Twenty-three years after he played a no-nonsense lawyer opposite Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Denzel Washington might soon be heading back to courtroom.

EW can confirm the two-time Oscar-winning actor is in talks to star in Dan Gilroy’s legal drama Inner City, the writer-director’s follow-up to his critically-acclaimed indie thriller, Nightcrawler.

Variety reports Gilroy’s original script is similar in tone to Sidney Lumet’s 1982 classic The Verdict, in which Paul Newman plays a lawyer who pushes a medical malpractice case to trial as he attempts to save his own career.

A source close to the film tells EW several studios are circling the project, which will be formally shopped after Labor Day, though none have yet to officially come aboard.

Jennifer Fox, the Oscar-nominated producer of films like Michael Clayton and We Need to Talk About Kevin, will also produce Inner City. Fox previously worked with Gilroy on Nightcrawler, which grossed $32.4 million domestically on an $8.5 million budget and stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Riz Ahmed, and Rene Russo.

Washington can next be seen in The Magnificent Seven, which is set to open the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival in September. Later this year, he toplines (and directs) Fences, Paramount’s prospective awards contender based on a play by August Wilson, opposite Viola Davis.