In the latest, riveting chapter of Shia LaBeouf‘s artistic journey, Shia LaBeouf has announced that he will be playing Shia LaBeouf’s dad in a movie about Shia LaBeouf, based on a script co-written by … Otis Lort, which is actually a pseudonym for Shia LaBeouf.
The script, entitled Honey Boy, actually ended up on Hollywood’s famed Black List, a list of the “most liked” film scripts that have generated a lot of buzz in studio circles, but have not yet been produced. Per the official synopsis, its story concerns:
“A child actor and his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father [attempting] to mend their contentious relationship over the course of a decade.”
Lucas Hedges, who appeared in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and Lady Bird, will play the actor during his child star era, when he appeared on the Disney Channel series Even Stevens.
The actor has spoken about their tumultuous relationship in the past, and ‘honey boy’ was reportedly a nickname given to him by his father, described as a “former clown performer and recovering heroin addict.” In an interview with Esquire, he further explained:
“My dad handed me a lot, and his legacy was an emotional one. And it wasn’t scarring. He handed me texture. My dad blessed me that way.”
In the same Esquire interview, the actor spoke about his contentious relationship with the Transformers films, which gave him his break and earned him millions of dollars, but failed to satisfy him as an artist. he explained:
“Michael [Bay] and Steven [Spielberg] did a lot for me. I’m not going to pooh-pooh those dudes anymore. My hang-up with those films was that they felt irrelevant. They felt dated as fuck … You come up on these stories about Easy Rider and Raging Bull and De Niro and Scorsese and Hopper, and you find value in what they do. Meanwhile, you’re chasing energon crystals. It’s very hard to keep doing what you’re doing when you feel like it’s the antithesis of your purpose on this planet.”
Honey Boy is set to be directed by Alma Har’el, who has released several documentary features, including last year’s 11 / 8 / 16, and made music videos for the likes of Sigur Rós.
