Denzel Washington stars in 'The Book of Eli'. (Warner Bros.)

Photos: Pictures from the premiere, stills | Showtimes

Apparently, if it wasn’t for Denzel Washington’s son, The Book of Eli would’ve been very different.

In an interview with Dark Horizons’ Paul Fischer, the Eli star says his son, John David Washington, pushed Denzel into this movie and two others — Training Day and American Gangster. Considering how well the other two films were received, Eli bodes well for Dad, and John David may have a future as a producer.

Denzel stars as a man who battles his way across an apocalyptically scorched continent to protect a sacred book that holds the secrets to saving mankind. No mean feat, but, hey, it’s Denzel.

The cool thing about Eli is that Washington may have improved the movie by applying what he learned as a director on Antwone Fisher and The Great Debaters.

From Dark Horizons:

I’ve taken what I’ve done as a director, and in this case anyway, applied it to the screenplay because I was really involved as a producer as well and we would sit up in my house and I’d play all the parts and flesh them out. For example, I came up with an idea with Gary (Oldman)’s character. I actually played it out in my house where I said, let’s have him say, “pray for me.” Like he gets right down and whispers, because he’s a complex guy. It’s easy to just make him the bad guy, and maybe that just makes him even more evil, does he mean it, does he not, but I actually played it out on the floor of my guest house. I said pray for me, I mean it.

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