It’s difficult to keep tabs on the absolute torrent of curveballs that Shia LaBeouf has thrown our way in his quest to explore the celebrity condition. His dedication to plagiarizing Joaquin Phoenix’s arc in “I’m Still Here” is admirable, though: first there was the tales of unhinged behavior, then the retirement from acting, and recently the grand admission of it all as performance art. All of which leaves (hopefully) only one last move: the return to the big screen.
The Wrap reports LaBeouf has chosen his next film project, and luckily he’s picked one with a stellar line-up. “Wag The Dog” director Barry Levinson will direct LaBeouf alongside Bill Murray in “Rock The Kasbah,” an ensemble comedy that will also star Bruce Willis, Kate Hudson, Danny McBride, and Zooey Deschanel. The story centers on a washed-up rock manager (Murray) who travels to Afghanistan on business and finds himself stranded in Kabul. Fortunately he quickly discovers a talented singer intent on winning the competition show “Afghan Star”, and sets about recovering his career once more. Filming on the picture starts in June, so we’ll soon see what Levinson can do with that comedic cast after his foray into horror with 2012’s “The Bay.”
Over in more dramatic territory, Deadline reveals that Rebecca Hall has stepped into the lead female role of indie romance “Tumbledown” opposite Jason Sudeikis, after actress Rose Byrne departed the project not long after the project was first announced last April. Hall will play a grief-stricken writer in Maine struggling to overcome the death of her prominent musician husband, about whom she’s writing a biography. Her life changes however when she meets a curt New York academic (Sudeikis), and together they try to finish the biography while growing closer. The film marks director Sean Mewshaw and writer Desi Van Til’s first produced feature, and it goes into production this March.
Fresh off proof of his range in festival entries “The Skeleton Twins” (which just debuted at Sundance) and “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him & Her,” Bill Hader is now set to enter Judd Apatow’s particular blend of comedic reality suffused with drama. The former “SNL” actor has been revealed (via Variety) to join comedian Amy Schumer as co-lead in Apatow’s next directorial effort “Trainwreck,” which follows Schumer (who wrote the script) as a “basket case” trying to re-build her life. The flick hits theatres on July 24th, 2015, but in case you’d like to see Hader take a more sci-fi direction next, check out his cache of “Star Wars” characters exampled on “Conan” recently. Watch below.
