Fresh from racing through David Mamet’s little-seen drama Henry Johnson, which was completed in five days (!!!), Shia LaBeouf is working with another veteran filmmaker in the twilight of their career. Filmolia reports LaBeouf will star in the cheerily-titled Angel of Death, a WWII drama from Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski. Not only that, but LaBeouf will also co-write the screenplay.
LaBeouf will star in and co-write Angel of Death, starring as Dr. Miklos Nyiszli, the Hungarian Jew forced to work with Dr. Josef Mengele, one of the cruelest architects of the Holocaust.
Skolimowski is coming off his kinetic donkey thriller EO, which wowed critics at Cannes (and us!!) in 2022, winning the Jury Prize. At 87 years old, he doesn’t seem to be slowing down at all. In fact, he seems to have the wind at his sails and working with LaBeouf could produce another festival darling. Angel of Death sounds like a real bummer of a movie and a tough sell. Let’s see how easily it finds distribution.
This won’t be LaBeouf’s first feature screenplay, either. He wrote the semi-autobiographical Honey Boy, which earned its share of praise back in 2019. While he’s no longer the huge, blockbuster that he once was, LaBeouf is quietly in a creative renaissance by working with some of the best and most experienced filmmakers in the world.
