Director Abel Ferrarra Pursues Shia LaBeouf for Comeback Role as Italian Saint Padre Pio
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Indie director Abel Ferrara has revealed that Shia LaBeouf has come on board to play the lead role in his next feature, which centers on the younger years of Italian Saint Padre Pio.
Ferrara’s regular collaborator and close friend Willem Dafoe is also circling a role in the film, according to the director.
“We’re doing a film about Padre Pio, he’s a monk from Puglia. It’s set in Italy right after World War I. He’s now a saint, he had stigmata. He was also in the middle of a very heavy political period in world history,” Ferrara said. “He was very young before he became a saint, so Shia LaBeouf is going to play the monk.”
Ferrara plans to shoot the film on location in Puglia, located in Italy’s famous heel, in late October of this year.
He described the film as being “bigger” than many of his recent works, revealing that he has been working on it for quite some time, and that the addition of LaBeouf in the lead role meant the project is “all set” to shoot in the very near future.