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.”

Nicola Peltz Confirmed for “Transformers 4″ Opposite Jack Reynor

March 26, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

nicola-peltz I guess sometimes, all it takes is asking the right question. After months of wondering who will join Jack Reynor as the other half of the new Shia and Megan in Michael Bay’s “Transformers 4″ (after a previous report turned out to be at least partially incorrect), Bay’s official Twitter rather nonchalantly answered my question that it is indeed the formerly rumored Nicola Peltz.

Reynor and Peltz will play a high school-aged couple. He is a race car driver and she is the daughter of Mark Wahlberg, who will be the lead in at least this first film of the new chapter of “Transformers” before, presumably, passing it on to the youngsters. Bay is essentially rebooting his own franchise though the film is categorized as a sequel, with Optimus Prime and friends meeting a new group of humans, a few years after befriending Shia LaBeouf and Co, to go into intergalactic battle with. Filming is slated to begin in April and the movie already has a release date of June 29, 2014.

Peltz played Katara in M. Night Shayamalan’s ill-fated 2010 adaptation of “The Last Airbender” and is a regular on new “Psycho” prequel TV series “Bates Motel”, which just debuted on AMC. She also recently completed work on indie drama “Affluenza.”

Megan Fox To Star In Michael Bay’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”

February 21, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

megan-fox Uhhh. It looks like Michael Bay and Megan Fox have gotten past their (very public, very ugly) differences, as the “Transformers” director and fired star are set to work together again. Bay just announced via his website that Fox will play the female lead role of April in his live-action reboot of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

The role had been pegged for Elizabeth Olsen but she (wisely?) chose to do “Godzilla” instead. Now it’s Fox, who once compared Bay to Hitler and called him a nightmare to work for, who will play the plucky reporter and human companion to the four walking, talking, crime-fighting turtles who originated as comic book characters but quickly became cartoons, toys and a permanent part of our pop culture landscape. They’ve been on the big screen four times previously, and Bay is planning to release this newest incarnation on May 16, 2014.

Fox – along with co-star Shia LaBeouf shot to stardom thanks to her breakout role in Bay’s “Transformers” in 2007 and reprised her role for 2009′s “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”, but then was publicly fired from the threequel, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, after pre-production had already begun. She was replaced by British model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and has since laid low, but had a bit of a comeback recently thanks to a supporting turn in Judd Apatow’s “This is 40.”

Michael Bay confirms Jack Reynor will star in “Transformers 4″

January 8, 2013 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 1 Comment

Michael Bay himself has taken to his official website to confirm last month’s report that he has hired Irish actor Jack Reynor to star in “Transformers 4″, which already has Mark Wahlberg attached to the lead role.

Reynor will play one half of the young couple at the center of yet another action-packed struggle between giant space robots Optimus Prime and friends. A yet-to-be-cast actress (who could be Nicola Peltz, Isabelle Cornish, Gabriella Wilde, or someone else) will play a high school student and daughter to Mark Wahlberg, while Reynor will play her motorbike racing boyfriend. Filming is slated to begin in April and the movie already has a release date of June 29, 2014.

Reynor is currently earning raves for his leading role in Irish indie “What Richard Did”, and recently wrapped up his first Hollywood studio picture, comedy remake “The Delivery Man” starring Vince Vaughn, Cobie Smulders, Chris Pratt and Britt Robertson. If we weren’t sure before, the “Transformers” casting almost certainly now takes him out of contention for the male lead in YA adaptation “Divergent”, which has Shailene Woodley in the lead role and will be filming at the same time.

Brenton Thwaites and Nicola Peltz land “Transformers 4″ leads

December 11, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 2 Comments

“Transformers” fans, meet your new Shia and Megan. Twitch reports that, after extensive screen testing, Aussie up and comer Brenton Thwaites and “The Last Airbender” star Nicola Peltz have landed the two young leads in “Transformers 4″, which already has Mark Wahlberg committed to star.

Michael Bay is essentially rebooting his lucrative giant space robots franchise, with Optimus Prime and friends meeting a whole new group of humans to go into battle with, led by Wahlberg and his teenage daughter, to be played by Peltz. Twitch describes Thwaites’ as her “biker boyfriend”, while earlier reports had indicated his character would be a race car driver. The plan is to groom the youngsters to take more prominent roles in the sequels. The actors who tested for the roles signed test deals for three films and were told to keep April-November of 2013 open for shooting.

Presumably, this takes Thwaites out of the running for YA adaptation “Divergent”, the male lead for which he also auditioned, opposite Shailene Woodley. That will also film in early 2013 and we can’t imagine he’ll be able to do both. He’ll next be seen opposite Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty redo “Maleficent.” Peltz is best known for her role as Katara in M. Night Shayamalan’s ill-fated “The Last Airbender”, and is a regular on new A&E series “Bates Motel.”

Nicola Peltz, Hunter Parrish and more familiar faces vying to be “Transformers 4″‘s Shia and Megan

November 14, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting 3 Comments

“Transformers” is moving on with a brand new cast of characters, but of course we need new incarnations of the archetypes that worked in the first trilogy. Michael Bay is on board to direct “Transformers 4″ and Mark Wahlberg has taken on the male lead role as a dad with a teenage daughter, but now comes time to cast that teenage daughter and her racecar driver boyfriend, who will be taking over for the roles that launched the careers of Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. Testing for these roles will take place this week, reports THR, with actors being told they will be signed to three-picture deals and they need to be available for an April-November shoot. Unsurprisingly, a lot of the actors testing should be familiar to U&C readers.

For the role of Wahlberg’s daughter, Abbie Cornish’s younger sister Isabelle Cornish will be among those testing. The 17 year old only began following in her older sister’s footsteps this year by signing with major US talent agency United and is in now making the transition from Australian acting jobs – including a stint on famed talent exporter “Home and Away” – for Hollywood ones. Slightly more experienced American actress Nicola Peltz, who’s probably most known for her role in “The Last Airbender”, will also be testing for the role of the daughter. Peltz also has a role in new “Psycho” TV series “Bates Motel.”

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.”

Zoe Saldana and Megan Fox team up to produce and star in heist thriller “Swindle”

March 16, 2012 | Posted by Linda Ge in Casting Leave a comment

Score one for girl power. Megan Fox and Zoe Saldana will prove they are more than just pretty faces and objects of male fantasy when they team up for heist-thriller “Swindle”, which Deadline reports they will co-star in as well as produce along with superstar “Moneyball” and “The Social Network” producer Michael De Luca.

The storyline is being kept under wraps, but the project came together out of Fox and Saldana actively seeking to work together, and the spec script by Enzo Mileti and Scott Wilson was won by Paramount Pictures after being sought by other studios as well. Both Saldana and Fox are no strangers to the action genre, with Fox having her big breakout moments in “Transformers” and “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” opposite Shia LaBeouf (the third, “Transformers: Dark of the Moon”, just wasn’t the same without her), and Saldana an alum of James Cameron’s “Avatar”, JJ Abrams’ “Star Trek” and her own headlined actioner “Colombiana.”

Fox has veered more towards comedies since “Transformers”, with roles in current indie hit “Friends with Kids” and Judd Apatow’s upcoming “Knocked Up” spinoff “This is Forty”, which revolves around Paul Rudd and Leslie Mann’s character’s from the former film. Saldana is currently filming Abrams’ “Star Trek 2″ and recently landed the female lead opposite Christian Bale in revenge thriller “Out of the Furnace.”

Shia LaBeouf to go from action hero to ‘A Giant’ in quirky love story

October 18, 2011 | Posted by Rebecca Lewis in Casting Leave a comment

Shia LaBeouf is a rising star, who still hasn’t quite hit the right note yet. He’s starred in several tentpole films, including the Indian Jones franchise and headlining the Transformers films but is mostly forgotten in smaller ensemble films such as 2006′s Bobby and 2009′s New York, I Love You. He currently has crime drama The Wettest Country in the World, also starring Tom Hardy, Mia Wasikowska and Jessica Chastain, in post-production and is currently filming Robert Redford’s political thriller The Company You Keep, another ensemble flick starring Anna Kendrick and Brit Marling but new reports out Variety suggest LaBeouf may finally be heading into “quirky love story” territory..

A Giant (currently just a working title) will star LaBeouf as a 20-foot-tall man, who meets and forms a relationship with his new next-door neighbour, home to reconnect with her family after a series of bad break-ups. It definitely sounds like something we haven’t heard before, and certainly not something we would picture starring LaBeouf, who tends to stick with the action-adventure genre.

No word yet on production dates, but this is to be the first film produced under a new company, Lava Bear Films, and will be directed by Gil Kenan, who also wrote the script.

Page 1 of 212 »

transformers