In recent years Denzel Washington has shaken up his onscreen reputation of portraying mostly noble good guy film roles by adding a few edgier characters to his movie mix. And lucky for moviegoers it seems that exciting trend will continue.

In his next feature, Flight, Washington will play a commercial airline pilot who flies under the influence of drugs and alcohol, according to Indiewire.com. The movie, directed by Robert Zemeckis (Castaway), tells the story of Whip Whitaker (Washington), a pilot who is branded a hero after successfully landing his plane full of passengers during an onboard malfunction. But when an investigation reveals that his flying high (pun intended) led to the near disaster, we watch as Whip is tortured by that hero status while his pilot union and airline scramble to cover up the truth to prevent a scandal.

Washington was last seen on the big screen in the runaway-train action hit Unstoppable, but he won the Best Actor Academy Award for his role as Detective Alonso Harris in 2001’s Training Day. From the description, it sounds like Flight might fly The Book of Eli star straight to that third Oscar.

Flight is scheduled to begin shooting in fall 2011. 

(Photo: Fernando Leon/PictureGroup)