Lem Dobbs is a great writer (Haywire and The Limey are two of my favorite Soderbergh films) but with Redford’s recent track record as a director, there’s no way this movie isn’t going to suck. Add in Shia and you have nothing but bad news. If Shia wants to reinvent himself, he needs to not only pick better material but work with a strong auteur, not Robert Redford.
I think Redford is still a strong auteur and I know Beatty is. Stone usually is but did Shia no favors (not that Shia did any for Stone either). Speilberg did not do him much good either. Maybe Shia would be better off working with a newer talent like Wayne Kramer.
I think Shia has gotten himself into a bit of a hole that he may not be able to get out of. That, of course, isn’t always bad, but if he’s going to think of himself as a serious actor, he’s is going to need a real change. I really don’t think it’ll have to do with whoever he’ll end up working with, it’s really going to be about how he wants to further himself as an actor and a person. You can really see the change if you go back into some of his earlier films like The Battle of Shaker Heights and Holes. Neither of which I care for, but his style is definitely much different from his supporting roles afterward and his leads in Disturbia and the Transformers movies.
I think Shia LaBeouf should change his name to !^&%^$#&(*. And he should probably stop picking his nose. He’s always struck me as a nose picker.
What’s wrong with nose picking? Sometimes you’ve got to get it out.
Did La Beouf really use Beatty as a comparison? That is such an offbase match that it suggests he doesn’t have a very good idea of the nature of his own celebrity, which therefore suggests he is more unlikely to find the sort of success he would be claiming to seek. He’ll be doing well simply managing to not C. Thomas Howell himself so any worry about Beattying is stretching things too far.
Shia like Beatty began as a tv star, that is about the only comparison, except they have both been famous since they were young. I think he simply means that he needs a good intellegent audience picture.
I don’t know, selecting Beatty suggests he sees himself as more of a star or, god help us, a sex symbol than he really seems to be. For La Beouf to go further he will either need to prove he can act by showing some range of emotions or he will need to develop a persona, any persona, right now he is cast in roles that are asking for the ansense of a persona, and that is quite possibly for a good reason. He doesn’t really project anything in his roles, he seems mildly amusing, somewhat nice, not too dumb, not too smart, not physically remarkable, but not quite a Hanksian everyman either as he has a little bit of a blank youngness about him that I’m not sure will age well. He seems to fit the idea of a slightly improved version of an average high school student, which suits his roles, although he does suggest a capicity to project some more maliciousness than he has so far, so there is certainly room for him to grow if he doesn’t try too hard to get roles that demand he carry a film with his self-perceived star appeal.
“He’ll be doing well simply managing to not C. Thomas Howell himself so any worry about Beattying is stretching things too far.”
Comment of the day!!! perhaps in the week!! hahahaha
nice one!
I can’t account for any of C. Thomas Howell’s movie choices, but he is good on the cable TV drama Southland as a recovering addict/idiot patrolman.
LaBeouf is starting to remind me of the Kevin Smith strategy of releasing a terrible film and then making apologies for a lack of quality. I know he’s not in the director’s chair, but he did take the money to be in a film and he has a say in making it good or bad.
I’m not sure what would serve him best at this point if he wants to make something with quality. Unless he wants to do the Ryan Gosling thing and work on smaller films with less commercial subject matter, he might be spinning his wheels or flipping the whole thing over. I guess the stage might be another option.
Even though I like Lem Dobbs quite a bit, I don’t have the sense that Redford is going to deliver a film that would satisfy the critical crowd and one that would have commercial appeal.
I think The Wettest County in the World will be his first real challenge into becoming the actor he says he wants to be. It has an interesting sounding story that was written by Nick Cave and is being directed by John Hillcoat. He heads up a cast including Tom Hardy, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman, Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain and Jason Clarke. I feel like he’s the weakest link in that lineup of talent but hopefully he’ll prove me wrong.
Judging by his awful Details profile recently(where he came off as a huge asshole), the guy seems to have a lot of raw emotion(anger, pain) underneath his tough guy facade that he tries to exude in the interview. Maybe if he can tap into those emotions, he can be a great actor.
“I don’t know, selecting Beatty suggests he sees himself as more of a star or, god help us, a sex symbol than he really seems to be.”
Let’s not forget that Beatty may not be the most exemplary acting figure in the world but even at an early stage of his career (hell yeah Splendor in the Grass), he showed some signs of what would later become a fundamental style of his persona, how natural he looked and how naturally he performed.
Does that Steven Spielberg embryo really think he’s given “acceptable” performances so far in his "career? If so, I pity all this American-centric interest of worthless actors (Adrian Brody, Ben Affleck etc) and actresses (Hilary Swank, Reese Witherspoon etc) in which Mr. LaBeouf is trying to become a member of.
@Dimitris Psahos – I don’t think Spielberg sees actors the same way others do. They’re like furniture. If he gets them in the right spot in the room, then this is considered acceptable.
^^Like Antonioni eh?
Guess Spielberg is underestimated after all ;-)
When I said Shia should work with a strong auteur, Wayne Kramer was probably the last guy I was thinking of. No, I meant someone like Von Trier, Refn, or even Fincher for God sakes (for that matter, just anyone who makes good movies).
If Shia wants to be taken as a serious actor, he needs to start working with serious filmmakers, not Michael Bay and DJ Caruso.
And the Beatty comparison is laughable. As Greg X stated, it shows how out of touch he is with his own brand. Beatty was a sex symbol and worked hard to prove his seriousness as an actor (if I would compare anyone to Beatty career, it would be Brad Pitt). He worked with the top filmmakers of the time – Arthur Penn, Hal Ashby, Robert Altman, Alan Pakula – while Shia has muddled about in blockbuster drivel.
Maybe Shia means he’s going start producing? : )
Although he’s still quite young, LeBeouf has been at it for a dozen years already. After a couple of years in TV drama, Beatty made a couple of more or less standard melodramas, All Fall Down with Frankenheimer, the Lilith with Robert Rossen, and Mickey One with Penn in a span of time comparable to that in which LeBeouf made the three Transformers films with Michael Bay.
He doesn’t need a game changer, he needs a whole different sport.
“more or less standard melodramas”
All Fall Down is his best film until McCabe (and Frankenhieimer’s best film altogether)
Mickey One is the only good American attempt at French new wave.
Lillith is mediocre but even it was its fans
I think Matt meant some standard melodramas then those other films as I don’t think he would call Mickey One standard anything.
oh, but before those other films he only made Splendor in the Grass (one of Kazan’s best) and then The Roman Springs of Ms Stone (the only one I would consider standard)
Yeah, no matter how you look at it, Eagle Eye, multiple Transformers, and Crystal Skull aren’t really going to match up well against any of Beatty’s films from the era. I really think the guy needs to play an asshole, I think he has it in him to really shine at that sort of role. Maybe he should give Mamet a call and see if they can’t work something out…
agree with the above tho I like The Battle of Shaker Heights quite a bit and he is not afraid to take small roles in what seemed at the time like prestige product (New York, I Love You and Bobby). I think the Redford film or certainly the next Beatty film could get him nominated next year (as the old guard often decide these things). A nomination opens doors to any kind of offer.
“I meant someone like Von Trier”
He has done nothing for anyone’s career since Emily Watson.
Right, less than ideal wording on my part. sorry. What Greg said—I like Splendor in the Grass well enough, and it certainly is a well-crafted example of what it is, but it’s not much of a departure from the norms of the period, and Roman Spring is, to my recollection, even less distinguished. But All Fall Down and Lilith have some strongly different shadings than those two, and then of course Mickey One is something else entire.
“And the Beatty comparison is laughable. As Greg X stated, it shows how out of touch he is with his own brand. Beatty was a sex symbol and worked hard to prove his seriousness as an actor (if I would compare anyone to Beatty career, it would be Brad Pitt). "
Yeah, LeBeouf is neither a good actor, or a sex symbol.
At first i thought he showed a little promise, but he is the same in every movie. And he was blown away in Wall Street 2 by pretty much everyone, and neither Douglas, Brolin or Langella were giving anywhere near their best performances. not even half as good as they can be.
Pitt is more of a Redford, somewhat rugged and not afraid to muddy his looks (Beatty never did this) a bit if the part requires.
The only one comparable to Beatty at this point is George Clooney
…except get Cannes prizes for Bjork, Gainsbourg, and now Dunst. Though not career changers, I think Dunst doing Meloncholia will at the very least present her in a different light as an actress (which is exactly what Shia needs).
Think Lars could have a similar sort of transformative effect on the career of an actor that he seems to have with his actresses, though?
Sure, why not? I know he tends to focus on female protagonists but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible.
I don’t mean to suggest Lars von Trier is Shia’s only savior. I just mean to say someone LIKE Lars von Trier. I mean, who would’ve thought Dunst was capable of doing ANYTHING outside of stupid movies like Dick and Marie Antoinette? Ditto for Bjork. I think there are plenty of directors out there that could have this effect on Shia (however it’s still up to Shia to deliver a good performance – something I’m not sure he’s capable of).
Couldn’t hurt.
I think he was trying for that kind of appeal with Disturbia, but the script didn’t live up to the concept. (The concept being ‘Rear Window with teenagers’.)
Dennis Brian
LeBeouf has stated in several interviews lately that he is making the wrong choices and needs a “Warren Beatty type game changer.” Clearly, he is smart enough to know he is making garbage and a reference to Beatty shows he knows about career arcs; there is news both that he is taking a part in Beatty’s Howard Hughes film and this (from darkhorizons)
Voltage Pictures and Wildwood Enterprises have cast Shia LaBeouf and Robert Redford in the political action thriller, The Company You Keep with Redford set to direct from a script by Lem Dobbs (Haywire, The Limey, Dark City), based on the novel by Neil Gordon. The film chronicles the story of a former Weather Underground militant wanted by the FBI for 30 years, who must go on the run when his true identity is exposed by a young, ambitious reporter hell-bent on making a name for himself. Redford plays the former radical at the center of this nationwide manhunt and LaBeouf, the determined journalist doggedly chasing him and his story. The picture is currently in pre-production and is set to film in Vancouver in September.
Are these the projects that will make him a long lasting star or is courting old Hollywood a bad direction, does he even have enough talent for it to matter?