King Kong did not, in fact, have, er, doo-doo on Denzel Washington at the turn of the 21st century. Fresh off his second Oscar win (and his first as a lead performer) for playing dirty LAPD detective Alonzo Harris in Antoine Fuqua's "Training Day," the capital-M Movie Star made a habit of working with his old friends over the decade that followed. Indeed, if one were to run through his resume, one would note that most of Washington's films in the 2000s were directed by either one of his former collaborators or Denzel himself. Then again, if your pals were Spike Lee, Tony Scott, Jonathan Demme, and the under-appreciated Carl Franklin, you'd want to make all of your movies with them too.

Not that any of this was out of character for Washington, an artist who's been meticulous about cultivating his screen image since making his film acting debut in the punching bag that was Michael Schultz's 1981 dramedy "Carbon Copy" (oft considered Washington's all-time worst movie). He also barely ever joins forces with directors who haven't already got a hit film or more under their belt by the time they work together, itself a lesson he took to heart after making one of his other rare movies of ill repute, 1990's "Heart Condition," with TV helmer turned first-time feature director James D. Parriott. Thanks to this unofficial policy of his, Washington has yet to endure a professional slump that extends beyond a single film.