How does one go about finding an actor to portray himself? For Steven Spielberg, the extensive search has concluded with the casting of relative newcomer Gabriel LaBelle to play the filmmaker in a movie loosely based on his childhood.
Deadline has the news of LaBelle being cast in Spielberg’s upcoming film, about the director’s time growing up in Arizona and the people who were formative in the man he would become. Michelle Williams and Paul Dano are set to play fictional versions of Spielberg’s parents, with Seth Rogen as his favorite uncle.
The film will stretch across many years in Spielberg’s life, and will have the filmmaker actualy working on the screenplay alongside Tony Kushner. Spielberg hasn’t written a script since A.I. twenty years ago, but it makes sense that he would for this project.
LaBelle’s biggest film prior to this was a small role in The Predator. He’ll next play a young Jon Bernthal in Showtime’s upcoming series adaptation of American Gigolo.
Spielberg plans to begin shooting this summer.
