As we await his Ryan Gosling-led thriller Only God Forgives, we’ve got a major update on the career of director Nicolas Winding Refn. But before we get to that, it’s finally been revealed that the aforementioned Drive follow-up will get a release on May 23rd, 2013. After debuting last year’s slick stunt/getaway driver feature at Cannes (where he picked up Best Director), this date certainly hints a return to the festival. The Thursday bow (from Radius-TWC) is a little odd, but it means it will land a day before Fox’s animation Epic, Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 and WB’s The Hangover Part III.

Now, on to bigger things for the director; after being one of the rumored directors for the Denzel Washington-led thriller The Equalizer, Refn has been given the gig by Sony. In what will be the start of Washington‘s hopefully first franchise, The Equalizer follows a man — named Robert McCall in the original ’80s TV series — employed as a “troubleshooter” for a company called “The Agency.” This line of business sees him do private investigating and business with a more physical bent, all in the name of doling out justice to those who are “truly deserving.”

Written by Richard Wenk (The Expendables 2), the synopsis may sound generic, but one only needs to look at Refn’s previous work to see how he can make such a plot into something we’ve never seen before. With Washington coming off one of his career-best performances in Flight, this is an exciting direction for him to head, and with this news, it certainly shot up to one of our most-anticipated features.

Production on The Equalizer kicks off this spring for a April 24th, 2014 release. [THR]

Are you looking forward to Only God Forgives this May? What about The Equalizer?