Shia LaBeouf to hunt down Robert Redford in film about 1960s radicalism

By Sean O'Neal | July 20, 2011 | 3:24pm

Aux Features Film

Although Shia LaBeouf’s off-screen persona comes off like a blend between the pugnacious 1980s Sean Penn and the unfiltered braggadocio of Roseanne-era Tom Arnold, he’s been making a concerted effort to grow up on screen by only starring in “Warren Beatty-type game changers” from now on—something he can afford to do because he’s accrued many lifetimes’ worth of giant-ass robot money. So far that strategy seems to involve a lot of dignity by osmosis, starring opposite older actors like Harrison Ford, Michael Douglas, possibly Warren Beatty (in the literal realization of a “Warren Beatty-type game changer”), and now you can add to that list Robert Redford.

Deadline reports that LaBeouf has signed on to the Redford-directed drama The Company You Keep, adapted from the Neil Gordon novel, which will find him playing a young journalist who exposes the identity of a former Weather Underground radical, setting off a nationwide manhunt by both the FBI and LaBeouf. Given that the press release describes the Weather Underground as “real Americans who stood for their beliefs, thinking they were patriots and defending their country's ideals against their government,” most likely LaBeouf will reach some understanding with Redford. And of course, we’re all looking forward to the press junket in which LaBeouf shares his thoughts on the bombing of U.S. government buildings, as those will most likely be very considered and well-reasoned.