Shia's last crusade
The news on Friday that 21 year old rising movie star Shia LaBeouf [had been added to the cast of the fourth Indiana Jones movie] alongside Cate Blanchett and soon-to-be senior citizen Harrison Ford caught a lot of people by surprise, since the actor repeatedly denied that he'd been offered the role right up until it was confirmed by Paramount.
I was among the chorus of confused moviegoers who asked LaBeouf to clear the haze of Internet chatter and set the record straight. I had just sat through a screening of [that insultingly crass genre riff Disturbia ]at the South by Southwest Film Festival and needed to take my mind off the whole ordeal. Of course, Disturbia opened at number one across the country this weekend, which bodes well for LaBeouf (who also plays a role in Michael Bay's Transformers movie this summer), but not for movie audiences. At any rate, LaBeouf gave me the predictable noncommittal reply.
"It's just a rumor right now," he told me. "I mean, shit, I'd love to. Who wouldn't?"
At this point, Disturbia director DJ Caruso, standing next to LaBeouf, tried to help cushion the situation. "What'd they say in The Player?" he asked. "All those rumors are..." Then he was at a loss for words, and nobody seemed to be able to help out. But I've checked the screenplay. The line from The Player is "Rumors are always true."
Whether he was afraid that Caruso had revealed too much or he really didn't know that he was in the running for the part, LaBeouf reiterated his position. "I was also rumored to be Jimmy Olsen," he said. The role of Olsen in Superman Returns eventually went to Sam Huntington. LaBeouf added, "I dont want to put too many eggs in that basket, because you never know." Unless, of course, you do know, and just aren't telling.