After Matt Drake’s script for The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman landed on the 2007 Black List (the list of best unproduced screenplays of the year), it caught the interest of Shia LaBeouf. But the Transformers franchise ate up most of the actor’s time, and Zac Efron stepped in to take his place. As often happens in Hollywood, things fell apart yet again, and now LaBeouf is done with his robot-related commitments and re-attached as the lead here. So what is this movie even about? Hit the jump to find out.

Variety reports commercial director Fredrik Bond is set to direct the “gritty pulp romance” that, despite that description full of Hollywood buzzwords, actually sounds pretty fantastic.

Here’s the full synopsis from Collider:

Charlie Countryman (LaBeouf) was just a normal guy…until he fell in love with the one girl who will probably get him killed.  When Charlie meets the absolutely irresistible Gabi she’s already been claimed by Nigel, an insanely violent crime boss with a gang of thugs at his disposal.  Armed with little more than his wit and naïve charm, Charlie endures one bruising beat down after another to woo Gabi and keep her out of harm’s way.  Finally his exploits of blind valor create such a mess that he’s left with only one way out; to save the girl of his dreams, must Charlie Countryman die?

LaBeouf will appear next in John Hillcoat’s highly anticipated bootlegging drama The Wettest County with Tom Hardy, Jessica Chastain, Gary Oldman, Guy Pearce, and more. He’s also got Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep in post-production, with a phenomenal cast including Sam Elliot, Stanley Tucci, Brendan Gleeson, Brit Marling, Terrence Howard, Susan Sarandon, and Redford himself. Pre-production has begun on The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, with filming scheduled to start in Eastern Europe this May.

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Update: Amazon has now made the movie available to pre-order on : DVD | Blu-ray

With Transformers: Dark of the Moon having a mammoth runtime of 155 minutes it’s hard to imagine there was much left on the cutting room floor for the DVD and Blu-ray release, but in a recent interview Shia LaBeouf said there’s “hours and hours” of footage that didn’t make the cut. Most of it involves talking.

From MTV:

“Because we’re 3-D, you’re shooting digital all the time,” LaBeouf told MTV News. “The beauty for us is, let’s say I’m doing a scene with [John] Malkovich or Frances [McDormand] or [Patrick] Dempsey or even Rosie [Huntington-Whiteley] — we’d just riff. You’ve got hours and hours of all that … where you’re just riffing and ad libbing and trying to come up with lines.”

One short scene that was cut featured John Malkovich’s boss as he leaves a meeting with LaBeouf, Huntington-Whiteley and a few Autobots.

“It was just a little tiny thing where I go back to Rosie after I leave the apartment and try to get her number,” Malkovich explained. “That’s the kind of thing that could be true to the character and could not be true to the character — hard to say — but is utterly superfluous to the forward movement of the film.

“You’re a figure in someone else’s dream, and however their dream plays out is the way it is,” he added.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon has only just been released so talk involving the DVD and Blu-ray is a bit premature, but it is likely Paramount will set a release date for the end of the year. The Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen DVD/Blu-ray contained lots of extra features, so we can expect the same for Bay’s final Transformers movie.

Update: Amazon has now made the movie available to pre-order on : DVD | Blu-ray

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Dark of the Moon is not only the best entry in Michael Bay’s Transformers saga, it’s also one of the best action movies of the year. Bay does what he does best – make stuff look awesome – but more importantly, the story and characters actually feel important to the film instead of ancillary functions of a purely CGI-driven creation. Ehren Kruger’s script is a perfect match for Bay’s directing style, balancing just the right amount of story with terrific action beats. Though it clocks in around two hours and forty minutes, the last hour is one of the most action packed segments in recent film history.

Let the record show that I believe Michael Bay is a brilliant filmmaker. Allow me to be clear: the man doesn’t necessarily make brilliant films (OK, never), but he’s a craftsman of the highest order who is able to accomplish things that no other director in Hollywood can. He has made an art of shooting helicopters, explosions, chase scenes, and destruction. He uses his actors as chess pieces in a larger game, and if you’re willing to play that game along with him, you’re going to have a hell of a good time.

One of the many reasons the second film, Revenge of the Fallen, didn’t work that well for me was because (and I realize this may sound crazy) there was an overabundance of robots. It was nothing but gnashing metal and mechanisms, a soulless piece of work that reeked of problems due to the then-in-full-swing Writers Guild of America strike. Dark of the Moon corrects all of these issues, boiling down the number of Transformers to the essential players and avoiding unnecessarily complicated mythologies.

The action in this film is jaw-droppingly impressive. The opening scene, an epic (and I don’t use that word lightly here) battle between the Autobots and Decepticons on their home world, rivals any space battle from any of the Star Wars films in the realm of size and scope. Much of this credit should be given to ILM for creating the visual effects, which, aside from being gorgeous, are easy to comprehend and immensely complicated. I normally don’t put much stock in the Oscars, but if the Academy fails to acknowledge the incredible effects work done in this movie, they truly are an irrelevant organization.

The reason I believe the action works so well in Dark of the Moon is because Bay essentially took scenes from the original Transformers and improved upon them. There is a fantastic highway car chase sequence (among the director’s best, an accomplishment in itself) that’s basically a more involved version of a similar scene in the first film. Same goes for the final 20 minutes, in which Shia LaBeouf runs through a huge city against all odds toward a piece of alien technology. Though some may find this a bit repetitive, I have absolutely no problem with it: since these scenes are all bigger and more bombastic than the first film (there are District 9-type alien ships floating above Chicago this time, and FAR more destruction and chaos in the streets), the movie doesn’t feel like a poor imitation of something we’ve already seen. Bay’s use of live action 3D here is phenomenal, and best used in a base-jumping sequence that was shot practically with the same technology that James Cameron invented for Avatar.

Rosie Huntington-Whitely is a step up from Megan Fox, and even though Rosie’s character isn’t quite as involved as I would have liked, she’s still a tenfold improvement from Fox’s Mikaela Banes. Rosie is definitely a “Michael Bay girl” (women in his movies should have their own classification, like Bond girls) and therefore isn’t relied on as much as the male protagonists, but for what it’s worth, I liked her a lot. She gives Sam Witwicky added motivation for self-improvement, and her presence seemed to insert a jolt of energy into what could have been a tired performance from Shia (who I’d imagine is getting sick of this character by now). And as a longtime LaBeouf fanboy, it should come as no surprise to that I was a big fan of his schtick here. He’s a true movie star in my mind – tremendously watchable and easily foreseeable as the next big A-list powerhouse in line with DiCaprio.

Dark of the Moon also succeeds in pulling together a strange collection of character actors to fill in the human roles in the movie, including John Turturro, Frances McDormand, Ken Jeong, Patrick Dempsey, Alan Tudyk, and the always-entertaining John Malkovich. I’ve heard complaints that the comedy didn’t work for many people, but I laughed a lot and found almost everyone enjoyable to watch. The exception, surprisingly, was McDormand, an actress I normally like, but found severely annoying after her first five minutes on screen. Even Ken Jeong was fun to watch, though he was acting as an amalgamation of every character he’s ever played.

In my review of the original Transformers, I wrote that I had “never seen so much debris in my life,” and now it falls on me to update that statement: Dark of the Moon now holds the record for the most debris of any film I’ve ever seen. Even if you’re not in it for the whole thing, the last forty-five minutes stands as one of the most impressive visual spectacles to hit theaters in a long time. Every other summer action film – Thor, Green Lantern, X-Men: First Class, Super 8, even Fast Five – must bow down to Michael Bay as the king of the summer blockbuster. When Bay is at his peak, nobody does it better. Until next time…

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Transformers: Dark of the Moon will be released later this week and is expected to make a stupid amount of money. In case you aren’t one of those currently planning to be a spectator to some robot warfare this weekend Paramount have released a new trailer to get you pumped. There’s quite a lot of new footage, but it only lasts a minute long and there’s nothing spoilery.

Watch below:

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro are back for the third outing, with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron. Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will be replacing Megan Fox as the female lead, playing Sam Witwicky’s new love interest Carly.

In this movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends. LaBeouf, who admitted he wasn’t impressed with the second film, said “there’s going to be a lot of death, human death. This time, they’re targeting humans,” and says “It’s going to be the craziest action movie ever made, or we failed.”

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When it was announced that Megan Fox wouldn’t be returning for Transformers 3 a few weeks before filming was set to begin there were conflicting reports as to why. Did Michael Bay fire the actress, or did Fox walk? We’ve heard bits here and there over the past year, but now Shia LaBeouf has given a pretty frank and honest explanation.

From the L.A Times:

“Megan developed this Spice Girl strength, this woman-empowerment [stuff] that made her feel awkward about her involvement with Michael, who some people think is a very lascivious filmmaker, the way he films women,” LaBeouf said. “Mike films women in a way that appeals to a 16-year-old sexuality. It’s summer. It’s Michael’s style. And I think [Fox] never got comfortable with it. This is a girl who was taken from complete obscurity and placed in a sex-driven role in front of the whole world and told she was the sexiest woman in America. And she had a hard time accepting it. When Mike would ask her to do specific things, there was no time for fluffy talk. We’re on the run. And the one thing Mike lacks is tact. There’s no time for [LaBeouf assumes a gentle voice] ‘I would like you to just arch your back 70 degrees.’”

Fox must have become tired of being told to lean suggestively over different modes of transportation. It was pretty clear what Bay’s ‘style’ was when he started test-screening for Fox’s replacement. They were all models. He wasn’t interested in acting talent, it was all about looks.

I think people should give Rosie Huntington-Whiteley a shot (don’t judge a book by its cover and all), but the fact Paramount haven’t shown much of her speaking and acting in the trailers isn’t encouraging. Fortunately Whiteley seems to be good at all the other stuff she’s asked to do, as Shia explained:

“Rosie comes with this Victoria’s Secret background, and she’s comfortable with it, so she can get down with Mike’s way of working and it makes the whole set vibe very different,”.

I’m sure there many who don’t mind seeing aesthetically pleasing females rolling around in their summer blockbusters, but there’s something quite sad about an actress having to quit a film because the director just wants her to ‘be looking fine’. But then again, Fox did decide to play a prostitute in Jonah Hex.

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We heard earlier today that the world would be getting Transformers: Dark of the Moon two days earlier on June 29th, and now Michael Bay’s official website has released a new trailer for the film showing off some of the potentially cool 3D scenes. It’s similar to the theatrical trailer, just with some new action-filled footage.

Watch below:

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro will be back for the third outing, with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron. Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will be replacing Megan Fox as the female lead, playing Sam Witwicky’s new love interest Carly.

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends. LaBeouf, who admitted he wasn’t impressed with the second film, said “there’s going to be a lot of death, human death. This time, they’re targeting humans,” and says “It’s going to be the craziest action movie ever made, or we failed.”

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Paramount Pictures has decided to moved up Transformers: Dark of the Moon two days from Friday, July 1st to Wednesday, June 29th. This means it will have more than two whole weeks to itself with little competition until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 opens on July 15th.

Michael Bay’s final Transformers movie has received a PG-13 rating in the US for “intense prolonged sequences of sci-fi action violence, mayhem and destruction, and for language, some sexuality and innuendo.” I’d expect nothing less.

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Following the release of the new trailer yesterday Paramount released a new poster for Transformers: Dark of the Moon via Yahoo! Movies. The poster features Optimus Prime in a familiar pose, with Sam Witwicky (Sam Witwicky) and Carly (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) at his feet.

You can view the full poster below:

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This week has been an excellent week for trailers, and Paramount finished it off in spectacular fashion by unveiling a brand new trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Director Michael Bay has been pretty honest about the failures of Revenge of the Fallen and, while this trailer is still big on robots and big on action, I have a feeling it will be an improvement.

Watch the trailer below:

Shia LaBeouf, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, and John Turturro will be back for the third outing, with Peter Cullen returning as the voice of Optimus Prime and Hugo Weaving returning as the voice of Megatron. Victoria’s Secret model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley will be replacing Megan Fox as the female lead, playing Sam Witwicky’s new love interest Carly.

In this new movie, the Autobots and Decepticons become involved in a perilous space race between the U.S. and Russia, and once again human Sam Witwicky has to come to the aid of his robot friends. LaBeouf, who admitted he wasn’t impressed with the second film, said “there’s going to be a lot of death, human death. This time, they’re targeting humans,” and says “It’s going to be the craziest action movie ever made, or we failed.”

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Universal’s search for the new face of their Bourne franchise is narrowing, and Deadline has a list of actors who are set to test for the lead role early next month. They include Joel Edgerton (The Thing), Dominic Cooper (The Devil’s Double), Garrett Hedlund (Tron: Legacy) and Luke Evans (The Amateur American).

The site also says that more established names such as Shia LaBeouf and Taylor Kitsch (to be seen in John Carter of Mars and Battleship next year) are also in the mix and have met with director Tony Gilroy, but they wont be testing.

Last year Gilroy cleared up what The Bourne Legacy is actually about and insisted it won’t prevent Matt Damon from returning in the future.

“It’s a completely original screenplay.” Secondly, “This is not a reboot or a recast or a prequel. No one’s replacing Matt Damon. There will be a whole new hero, a whole new chapter…this is a stand-alone project.

“The easiest way to think of it is an expansion or a reveal,” Gilroy says. “Jason Bourne will not be in this film, but he’s very much alive. What happened in the first three films is the trigger for what happens. I’m building a legend and an environment and a wider conspiracy…the world we’re making enhances and advances and invites Jason Bourne’s return [down the road].

Universal is targeting an August 2012 release for The Bourne Legacy with filming expected to begin later this year.

More names will no doubt be thrown into the mix over the upcoming weeks but, from the actors above, who’s your pick?

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