Hollywood actor Shia LaBeouf has joined the cast of Francis Ford Coppola’s upcoming USD 100 million epic feature ‘Megalopolis’. According to an entertainment website, earlier this month, reports surfaced indicating that the controversial actor was circling a leading role in Coppola’s passion project.
Now, with production slated to begin this fall, LaBeouf’s casting has been confirmed.
Also set to join the picture, which already boasts an all-star lineup including Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jon Voight and Laurence Fishburne, are Talia Shire, Jason Schwartzman, Grace VanderWaal, Kathryn Hunter and James Remar.
The screenplay of this film was penned by Cappola in the 1980s. The plot has remained largely under wraps, with the story reportedly set in an alternate reality version of New York City dubbed ‘New Rome’.
However, the film’s official logline teases new details: “The fate of Rome haunts a modern world unable to solve its own social problems in this epic story of political ambition, genius and conflicted love.” LaBeouf’s casting comes after the star had been all but blacklisted from Hollywood after musician FKA Twigs, his former romantic partner, filed a lawsuit against him in 2020 for sexual battery, assault and infliction of emotional distress.
The lawsuit alleged multiple incidents of physical abuse during the couple’s one-year relationship in 2018 and 2019, with the musician claiming LaBeouf at one point nearly choked her to death. The lawsuit is yet to go to trial.
After the allegations broke, LaBeouf, who has a history of legal issues and arrests, issued an apology, eventually left his management agency and reportedly sought inpatient treatment.
Although LaBeouf hasn’t starred in a Hollywood film since, he is set to appear in Abel Ferrara’s ‘Padre Pio’, which will open at the Venice Film Festival’s Venice Days section later this summer.
The ‘Transformers’ actor recently denied director Olivia Wilde’s claim that he was fired from ‘Don’t Worry Darling’. “I quit your film because your actors and I couldn’t find time to rehearse,” LaBeouf said in an email he forwarded to Variety and claimed to have sent to Wilde, as per the outlet.
