Shia LaBeouf is a “Villain” in New Psychological Thriller

May 14, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

shia-labeouf Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is set to direct Shia LaBeouf in two-hander psychological thriller “Villain”, according to Deadline. The film was written on spec by Josh Zetumer and follows two brothers who confront their dark past and each other in an unforgiving wilderness. The other brother should be set soon, Deadline further reports. Under an earlier configuration with director David Slade, the film was to shoot in Alaska but no word if that’s still the case.

LaBeouf got high marks in Cannes last year for his turn as one of three bootlegging brothers in Prohibition-era Virgina in “Lawless”, and then appeared opposite Robert Redford in “The Company You Keep” and Evan Rachel Wood in “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.” He’s wrapped up filming on Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” and is next set for David Ayers’ WWII tank actioner “Fury” opposite Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman.

Brit Marling Replacing Olivia Wilde in Civil War Drama “The Keeping Room”

April 24, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

Not surprising due to her constantly busy schedule, but Olivia Wilde has apparently dropped the indie Civil War drama formerly known as “The Keeping Room”, and The Wrap reports Brit Marling will be taking her place. Original cast members Hailee Steinfeld and Nicole Beharie remain on board.

Written by Julia Hart and to be directed by Daniel Barber, the now untitled film will follow two sisters and one slave, during the dying days of the Civil War, who are forced to defend their home from a band of soldiers who have broken off from the Union Army. Filming had been set to begin in March in North Carolina but it looks like that has been pushed back.

Marling, who has made a name for herself writing and starring in films such as “Another Earth” and “Sound of My Voice”, was last seen opposite Richard Gere in financial thriller “Arbitrage” and has also completed another writing/acting project, eco-terrorist thriller “The East” due out next month. She recently wrapped up shooting on young Lincoln biopic “The Green Blade Rises” as well as dark art world comedy “Posthumous” and is attached to literary adaptation “The Grace that Keeps This World.”

Shia LaBeouf Goes to Battle with Brad Pitt in WWII Thriller “Fury”

April 23, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Army Commander Brad Pitt is filling out his squad, and has just recruited Shia LaBeouf, according to Variety. The two are set to star in World War II thriller “Fury”, to be directed by David Ayers.

Set in 1945 as the Nazi regime collapses, Pitt plays the Commander of a Sherman tank who leads a five-man crew in a battle against desperate German troops. LaBeouf will play one of his soldiers. Ayers also wrote the script, and it recently landed at Sony, with filming set to begin in the fall.

After breaking out starring opposite giant alien robots in Michael Bay’s “Transformers” trilogy, LaBeouf got high marks in Cannes last year for his turn as one of three bootlegging brothers in Prohibition-era Virgina in “Lawless”, and then appeared opposite Robert Redford in “The Company You Keep” and Evan Rachel Wood in “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.” He’s wrapped up filming on Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac” and just became attached to espionage thriller “Spy’s Kid” with Robert De Niro.

Shia LaBeouf is a “Spy’s Kid” in Espionage Thriller Opposite Robert De Niro

April 22, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Shia LaBeouf and Robert De Niro are attached to star as a father-son duo in true life spy thriller “Spy’s Kid”, according to THR.

Director DJ Caruso, who previously worked with LaBeouf on “Disturbia” and “Eagle Eye”, is attached to direct, but no writer has been set yet. The film will be based on a series of newspaper articles that chronicled the life and double-crossing spy career of Jim Nicholson, a CIA veteran who was convicted of selling secrets to the Russians in 1996 and sentences to a 20+ year prison sentence. His work didn’t stop there as his youngest son Nathan began visiting him and eventually became a courier carrying out his father’s work. De Niro and LaBeouf’s attachment is contingent upon the finished script, which appears to be a ways off.

After breaking out starring opposite giant alien robots in Michael Bay’s “Transformers” trilogy, LaBeouf got high marks in Cannes last year for his turn as one of three bootlegging brothers in Prohibition-era Virgina in “Lawless”, and then appeared opposite Robert Redford in “The Company You Keep” and Evan Rachel Wood in “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.” He’s wrapped up filming on Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac.”

Brit Marling joins Terrence Malick-produced young Lincoln biopic “The Green Blade Rises”

September 28, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Get ready for Lincoln: The Prequel. If, after watching Benjamin Walker play Abe as a vampire hunter and seeing what Spielberg and Daniel Day Lewis bring out in November’s “Lincoln”, you are still thirsting for more on our 16th President, rest assured, here comes “The Green Blade Rises.” The Terrence Malick-produced, A.J. Edwards-written-and-directed biopic will focus on Lincoln’s childhood, where his future is clearly influenced by various adults in his life.

Jason Clarke and Diane Kruger are set to play young Abe’s father and stepmother, respectively, and now Deadline reports Wes Bentley and Brit Marling are joining the cast as well to play more influential adult figures in Lincoln’s childhood. Bently will play Lincoln’s first school teacher, while Marling will play Nancy, Lincoln’s mother who died when he was 9. The film will be shot in black and white and begins production this fall.

Marling has become the It Girl of the indie scene thanks to her dueling Sundance breakouts in “Another Earth” and “Sound of My Voice” in 2011, both of which she also co-wrote. She can currently be seen playing Richard Gere’s daughter in thriller “Arbitrage” and recently completed work on another indie she co-wrote and starred in, “The East.” She’ll next be seen opposite Robert Redford and Shia Labeouf in “The Company You Keep.”

Watch: Anna Kendrick helps Shia LaBeouf track down Robert Redford in first trailer for “The Company You Keep”

August 30, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Videos 1 Comment

Robert Redford is a wanted man and Shia LaBeouf is on his trail in the first trailer for Venice and Toronto-bound political thriller “The Company You Keep.” Redford also directed the film that follows his character, a former Weather Underground activist wanted for decades old crimes. When fellow former activist Susan Sarandon is arrested, he senses his time might be up soon, especially when LaBeouf’s eager young reporter sniffs out his trail, with a little help from Anna Kendrick, a former college hook-up who now has FBI clearance.

The trailer promises an exciting cat and mouse chase and mystery solving, and also features “America’s Got Talent” kid singer Jackie Evancho as Redford’s daughter. Brit Marling, at one point purported to be the female lead of the film, is conspicuously missing. “The Company You Keep” premieres at the Venice Film Festival on September 6th, then at the Toronto Film Festival on September 8th, and was recently picked up for US distribution by Sony Pictures Classics, so an Oscar season release may be in the cards.

Watch the first trailer below.

Shia Labeouf in talks to join Lars Von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac”

August 8, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

After not really finding his way doing the blockbuster franchise thing – “Transformers” were hits, but those giant robots stole the show, and “Indiana Jones” didn’t exactly reboot itself – Shia Labeouf seems to be taking a page out of James Franco’s offbeat reinvention playbook and seeking out smaller, much more interesting roles instead. THR reports the actor is in talks with director Lars Van Trier about taking a role in his follow-up to critically acclaimed “Melancholia”, “Nymphomaniac.”

Labeouf won’t be playing the titular “Nymphomaniac”, that mantle belongs to Charlotte Gainsbourg as a woman whose erotic escapades from age 25 to 50 are recounted to her husband, played by Stellan Skarsgard. Von Trier will shoot two versions of the English-language film, an MPAA rating friendly version and a more sexually explicit version. No word yet on who Labeouf would play, while Nicole Kidman has also indicated she would have a supporting role as well. No start date has been set, but filming will take place in Germany.

After breaking out starring opposite giant alien robots in Michael Bay’s “Transformers” trilogy, LaBeouf got high marks in Cannes for his turn as one of three bootlegging brothers in Prohibition-era Virgina in “Lawless” and hopes to repeat the magic when he heads to Venice and Toronto as the star of Robert Redford’s political thriller “The Company You Keep.” He recently wrapped up shooting Europe-set action flick “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman” opposite Evan Rachel Wood and is attached to reunite with “Lawless” director John Hillcoat’s next feature, cop drama “Triple Nine.”

Toronto International Film Festival line-up includes opening night film “Looper”, plus “Silver Linings Playbook”, “Byzantium” and more

July 24, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in General News 1 Comment

Toronto kicks off Awards Season 2012 in a big way today with the announcement of over 60 Galas and Special Presentations that will play at the annual International Film Festival, running this year between September 6-16.

Rian Johnson’s highly anticipated sci-fi action flick “Looper”, starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Emily Blunt, will kick things off as the Opening Night film. Films making their World Premieres at the festival include Neil Jordan’s gang of vampires in “Byzantium” as played by Gemma Arterton and Saoirse Ronan, Sally Potter’s 1960s family drama “Ginger and Rosa” (formerly “Bomb”) starring Elle Fanning and newcomer Alice Englert, and Mike Newell’s “Great Expectations” with Jeremy Irvine as Pip and Holliday Grainger as Estella.

Bradley Cooper will have two films at the festival, David O. Russell’s “Silver Linings Playbook” opposite Jennifer Lawrence, and Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” with Ryan Gosling and Dane DeHaan. Logan Lerman is another actor represented twice at the festival, as he’ll appear in both “Writers” with Lily Collins, and “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” alongside Emma Watson and Ezra Miller. The ever-busy Anna Kendrick will also be pulling double duty in Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep”, starring Shia LaBeouf and Brit Marling, as well as David Ayer’s cop drama “End of Watch” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena.

See below for the complete list of Galas and Special Presentations (thanks to Movie Knight), which also include such highly anticipated premieres as Joe Wright’s experimental retelling of “Anna Karenina” starring Keira Knightley in the titular role and Aaron Johnson as Count Vronsky, and Terrence Malick’s long-gestating “To the Wonder” starring Rachel McAdams, Olga Kurlylenko and more.

And just think, there are more films to be announced in the coming weeks! Phew.

First images of Shia LaBeouf and Brit Marling in Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep”

July 23, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Images Leave a comment

Perhaps in advance of tomorrow’s TIFF line-up announcement, where it’s highly likely to premiere, the first stills from Robert Redford’s political thriller “The Company You Keep” have been released via Collider and they include our first looks at stars Shia LaBeouf and Brit Marling.

LaBeouf and Redford play cat and mouse in the actioner, officially summarized thus: “Jim Grant (Redford), a civil rights lawyer and single father must go on the run when a brash young reporter (LaBeouf), exposes his true identity as a former 1970s radical fugitive wanted for murder. Sparking a nationwide manhunt, Grant sets off on a cross-country journey to clear his name.” The large and impressive supporting cast is rounded out by Julie Christie, Sam Elliott, Brendan Gleeson, Terrence Howard, Richard Jenkins, Anna Kendrick, Stanley Tucci, Nick Nolte, Chris Cooper, and Susan Sarandon.

The stills are rather generic and tell us nothing about the characters, but the premise and strong cast are enough to keep us eagerly awaiting its release, now estimated to be sometime in the spring of 2013. In the meantime, we’re hoping we hear its title announced tomorrow morning, alongside other films that will be making their way to Toronto next month.

The two stills of LaBeouf and Marling can be viewed below, and be sure to head to Collider for more.

Shia LaBeouf to reteam with “Lawless” director John Hillcoat on “Triple Nine”

May 21, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

John Hillcoat clearly loved working with his cast on current Cannes title “Lawless”, as The Playlist reports the director has already set “Lawless” star Shia LaBeouf to star in his next feature, the cop drama “Triple Nine.” And it’s not for lack of wanting that LaBeouf is the only actor to return to work for Hillcoat, as he tells The Playlist: “Tom [Hardy]… Guy [Pearce]… I’ve had the great fortune of working with, they’re all collaborative actors that it would be great to keep working together like [screenwriter] Nick [Cave] and my production designer and wardrobe designer, that’s why we keep doing it,” he said. “But ['Triple Nine'] is next, they’re not all in it because of schedules and such but Shia is and we’ll see where it goes.”

“Triple Nine” centers around a group of crooked LAPD cops who discover they must shoot one of their own in order to pull off a major heist, and has been in development for years. At one point Chris Pine and Jeff Bridges were attached to star, but Hillcoat says that is no longer the case. However, looks like LaBeouf will be getting some co-stars fairly soon: “No one else is attached right now, but about to be.”

After breaking out starring opposite giant alien robots in Michael Bay’s “Transformers” trilogy, LaBeouf is getting high marks in Cannes for his turn as one of three bootlegging brothers in Prohibition-era Virgina in “Lawless.” He recently wrapped up shooting Robert Redford’s political thriller “The Company You Keep.” and up next is Europe-set action flick “The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman” opposite Evan Rachel Wood.

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the company you keep