At 56 years old, Denzel Washington is still one of the most sought after actors to work with in Hollywood. Deadline is reporting today that a massive who’s who list of the top young actors in in the game are hoping to star along side Denzel in the CIA-thriller Safe House, written by David Guggenheim. The list includes: Ryan Reynolds, Shia LaBeouf, Taylor Kitsch, Chris Pine, Sam Worthington, Garrett Hedlund, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Chris Hemsworth and Jake Gyllenhaal. Jeez Louise!

A brief synopsis of Safe House goes something like this:

Set in South America, Safe House follows a young U.S. intelligence agent who must go on the run with a newly arrived prisoner (Denzel) after his titular safe house comes under attack — think of a mix between Collateral and Three Days of the Condor.

Reynolds has apparently emerged from this mosh pit as the front-runner for the role, which should be a scheduling nightmare for his representatives. He is of course about to wrap up filming on Green Lantern, opening next year, and will star in the two sequels for the superhero film, announced last week. Then of course Reynolds is also still slated to star in his other superhero spin-off franchise for Marvel, Deadpool. No word yet on when production will get rolling on that film. And lastly, we reported last week that he was set to star in the netherworld comic-book adaptation of R.I.P.D. (Rest in Peace Department), releasing sometime in 2011. Jeez Louise again! How the hell is he going to find the time to eat, pee, poop and brush his teeth over the next two years?

As for the others, Pine is already co-starring with Denzel in the runaway train Tony Scott thriller Unstoppable, so their already-established relationship could surely work to his advantage. Gyllenhaal and Worthington could boast their star-status and acting credibility to snag the part. I think it’s safe to say that Efron and Tatum are completely out of the running. Efron has grown on me after 17 Again (hey, he was good), but he’s just a wee boy at 23 years-old and is WAY too young to play a CIA agent, same goes for LaBeouf. And Channing Tatum? Well, all I’ll say is, uh, probably not. I’m sure Denzel will also have a major influence on who ends up being cast. We’ll just have to wait and see.

What Do You Think? Discuss.