Michael Shannon is one of the best actors in the world, capable of making pretty much any genre his own. And while I’ve been critical of some recent choices, there’s no doubting Shannon’s talent, or the potential in his new career path as he readies his debut as a director.
Deadline reports Shannon will direct Eric Larue, an adaptation of Brett Neveu’s stage play. The story centers on a mother who is preparing to meet the mothers of students murdered by her teenaged son, Eric. Neveu will adapt the screenplay himself.
This is an especially weighty subject at the moment, given the rash of mass shootings and attempted legislation to curtail them. The film Mass dealt with the subject in a similar way and received wide critical acclaim.
“‘Eric Larue’ has so much to say about our country, about the way we try (sometimes quite ineptly) to deal with the trauma of living here, which is so insidious because it does not present itself overtly in concrete terms most of the time,” Shannon said. “Like most great stories, ‘Eric Larue’ plays at the macro and a micro level simultaneously. When I read the screenplay, I immediately knew I had to direct it. I saw it. I heard it. I could feel it. And I wanted to make sure that it received just the right touch in all its aspects, because at the end of the day, it is an extraordinarily delicate thing.”
Shannon had planned for shooting to begin in Arkansas. But following the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs Wade and that state’s trigger laws banning all abortions kicked in, Shannon has decided to move production to North Carolina.
