Robert Redford the Latest to Get Into the Shia LaBeouf Business

Tim Grierson
·Editor
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Few living actors have worked so hard (and so long) at being a Respected Hollywood Legend as Robert Redford.

Since winning a Best Director Oscar for "Ordinary People" about 30 years ago, he's largely played the same character over and over again: Venerable Old Person. "The Natural," "Out of Africa," "Indecent Proposal," "The Horse Whisperer," "Spy Game" ... he's always the guy a little past his prime who isn't quite ready to ride off into the sunset. Unfortunately, as a director he's often seemed just as beaten-down: With the exception of the terrific "Quiz Show," his films have been mostly memorable for how geriatric they feel, often sermonizing about political causes (such as with "Lions for Lambs" and "The Conspirator") at the expense of entertaining anyone. And audiences have responded by showing up in smaller and smaller numbers over time.

So who's gonna pull the nearly-75-year-old actor and director out of his rut? Shia LaBeouf, of course.

Showblitz reports that the two will be in "The Company You Keep," which a producer on the project calls an "edge-of-your-seat thriller," thereby proving that cliche technology has yet to evolve beyond describing thrillers as being of the "edge-of-your-seat" variety. From the plot description, it sounds like "The Company You Keep" will be more grownup thriller than huge-explosions thriller:

[Redford will] play a former Weather Underground militant wanted by the FBI for 30 years who must go on the run when a young, ambitious reporter exposes his true identity. LaBeouf, fresh off his box office hit "Transformers: Dark of the Moon," will play that budding journalist, who's determined to make a name for himself.

Redford's also going to direct, marking the first time he's helmed a straight thriller. The film's based on a 2003 book of the same name by Neil Gordon, and the first line of Publishers Weekly's review of the book should strike fear into any filmgoer's heart: "The revolutionary politics of the 1960s haunt the complacent domesticity of the 1990s in this engrossing, if sometimes muddled, melodrama of ideas." Uh oh. Redford has lately specialized in movies that are nothing but melodramas of ideas, and it seems rather unlikely that he'll jettison the book's political undertones for a standard chase picture. At his age, Redford seems to want to make sure every movie he makes "matters." LaBeouf's involvement is probably the only guarantee that anyone will ever see it.

Good 'Company': Shia LaBeouf And Robert Redford Paired For Thriller [Showblitz/Variety]