Lucas Hedges to Play Shia LaBeouf in LaBeouf Biopic 'Honey Boy'

[Nergal]

 

LaBeouf cowrote the script using the pseudonym Otis Lort and will also portray his father.


Lucas Hedges, who was nominated for an Oscar for his work in Manchester by the Sea, will play the young version of Shia LaBeouf in Honey Boy, a drama being made by Automatik.


Alma Har’el is due to direct the feature project that LaBeouf wrote and that tells, in a roman-a-clef style, a story about LaBeouf's relationship with his father.


The project reflects many facets of LaBeouf’s life – he cowrote the script using the pseudonym Otis Lort and will also portray his father. LaBeouf admitted that Lort was a pseudonym in an Esquire cover story published this week.


The script landed on the Black List with the following description: “A child actor and his law-breaking, alcohol-abusing father attempt to mend their contentious relationship over the course of a decade.”


LaBeouf, the one-time Steven Spielberg protege who starred in the Transformers movies, got his big break acting on Disney Channel’s Even Stevens and has described ping-ponging between 12-step programs with his father, a former clown performer and recovering heroin addict, and the set. "Honey boy" was the nick name given to him by father.


Hedges will play an Even Stevens-era LaBeouf.


Brian Kavanaugh-Jones is producing via Automatik Entertainment along with Christopher Leggett of Delirio Films and Daniela Taplin Lundberg of Stay Gold Features. Automatik's Fred Berger is the executive producer. Endeavor Content put together the financing and will co-rep worldwide rights with CAA.


Hedges most recently co-starred in the Oscar-winning drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as well as Lady Bird.