‘The Take’ First Look Unites Denzel Washington and Robert Pattinson, and Netflix Locks In a Release Date

Heist movies run on a simple promise: smart people, impossible odds and a plan that never survives contact with reality. Netflix is betting that the promise gets even stronger with the right cast. For months its mystery thriller ‘The Take‘ has sat in the “star-studded but secretive” corner of the streamer’s slate, and that is now changing.

The film was previously known as ‘Here Comes the Flood’, and its quiet title change earlier this month had fans scrambling to update their watchlists. Netflix first announced the project in May 2025 with Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones attached. Little beyond the logline has surfaced since then.

Netflix has now released the first photos and a poster. One image shows Pattinson and Edgar-Jones in a tight, lamplit moment, her hand at his jaw and their faces inches apart. It is a striking contrast with the film’s cold, cash-and-crime premise.

The poster is more stripped down. It shows Pattinson and Washington in profile, facing each other across a table with their hands folded, under the tagline “Time to get what you deserve.” The credits read “Written by Simon Kinberg” and “Directed by Fernando Meirelles,” and the poster carries an R rating. It also notes the film will play “in select theaters and on Netflix” on Jan. 15, a release date that was not previously confirmed.

First look at Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones in ‘THE TAKE.’ The unconventional heist film follows a bank guard, a teller and a master thief caught in a deadly game of cons and double crosses. Premiering January 15 on Netflix. (https://t.co/PcheD0CWuF)

— Pop Base (@PopBase) November 9, 2026

Netflix’s logline describes an unconventional heist film about a bank guard, a teller and a master thief caught in a deadly game of cons and double crosses. The studio has not said which star plays which role, so the casting is part of the guessing game. The trio is backed by Danai Gurira, Sean Harris, Moisés Arias and Justin Kirk, who joined the cast in November 2025.

Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated director of ‘City of God’ and ‘The Two Popes’, is at the helm. Kinberg wrote the script and produced alongside Audrey Chon through Genre Films and Meirelles himself, with Samson Mucke as executive producer. Netflix reportedly bought the script in 2020 in an undisclosed seven-figure deal, and Jason Bateman was once in talks to direct before Meirelles took over.

The movie is a milestone for its leads. According to What’s on Netflix, it is the first Netflix original for both Washington and Edgar-Jones. Pattinson has worked with the streamer before on ‘The King’ and ‘The Devil All the Time’.

Reports also note that Washington and Pattinson had never worked together before, which adds to the appeal of the pairing. That is a meeting between two very different generations of Hollywood leading men. Edgar-Jones, whose recent credits include ‘Twisters’ and ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’, brings a third distinct energy to the trio.

Principal photography ran from Nov. 3, 2025, to Jan. 22, 2026. Shooting took place in Jersey City, Hoboken, Newark, Atlanta and New York City, and the production was also spotted in Paterson, New Jersey. The film has been in post-production since the wrap, and Netflix had earlier confirmed a 2027 release without giving a date.

That timeline makes the January slot a notable choice. It places a prestige-casting heist thriller early in the year, at a time when audiences are often looking for something sleek and star-driven. The poster’s mention of select theaters also hints at a limited cinema run alongside the streaming premiere.

‘The Take’ is far from Washington’s only upcoming project. TheWrap reports he is also set to work with director Christopher McQuarrie on a thriller for Amazon MGM Studios and United Artists, slated for theaters on Oct. 1, 2027. With that and the new Netflix release in the pipeline, he has two major thrillers heading to audiences in quick succession.

For now, the first look and poster give fans something concrete after a long stretch of mystery. The film has the cast, the crew and a release date, and what is left is a trailer that explains who is playing whom. Until then, speculation about the bank guard, the teller and the thief will keep going.

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