Shia LaBeouf plays ‘magnetic’ outcast in ‘American Honey,’ plus more movie news
Shia LaBeouf is drawing praise at the Cannes Film Festival. Credit: AFP / Getty Images / ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT
WHO Shia LaBeouf
THE MOVIE “American Honey”
THE DEAL The much-maligned actor may have just reinvented himself at the Cannes Film Festival. According to Variety, LaBeouf is “magnetic” and “grabs and holds the camera” in the role of Jake, a young outcast, in a new road-trip movie. That’s a rare nugget of positive press for LaBeouf, who has become a media punch line thanks to various arrests, a plagiarism controversy and his arrival at the Berlin Film Festival with a paper bag over his head. Variety’s early review of “American Honey” compared LaBeouf to James Dean and called him “mesmerizing.”
WHO Margot Robbie
THE DEAL The actress, who plays the villainess Harley Quinn in the upcoming Warner Bros. movie “Suicide Squad,” has successfully pitched the studio an all-female superhero project, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Although few details about the fledgling project have been released, Robbie will produce it and reprise her role as Quinn in a story based in the DC Comics universe. The movie may also include characters or elements from DC’s “Birds of Prey” comics, which includes the heroine Barbara Gordon.
THE MOVIE “Tetris the Movie”
THE DEAL If the gaming app Angry Birds can become a feature film, why not Tetris? A Chinese-American production venture called Threshold Global Studios is putting together a project based on the 32-year-old video game, according to Deadline. Even though Tetris has no identifiable “characters,” only geometric shapes, the movie version will have an $80-million budget, a Chinese cast and a plot described as a “sci-fi thriller.” The film, which could begin production next year, is currently seen as part of a potential trilogy.
