Shia LaBeouf is attached to star in the feature film adaptation of the Joe Hill novel Horns.  LaBeouf will play Ig Perrish, a 26-year-old who drinks heavily on the first anniversary of his girlfriend's murder and awakes the next morning with horns growing from his head: "As his horns grow bigger, Ig sets out to investigate the unsolved murder of his girlfriend and the case's connection to his cursed fate."Keith Bunin (In Treatment) will adapt the screenplay for Mandalay Pictures, who optioned Horns in 2009 shortly before the book was published.  Hit the jump for the full synopsis, plus a look at the other projects Hill and LaBeouf have in development.horns-joe-hill-book-coverThe book synopsis:

Merrin Williams is dead, slaughtered under inexplicable circumstances, leaving her beloved boyfriend Ignatius Perrish as the only suspect. On the first anniversary of Merrin's murder, Ig spends the night drunk and doing awful things. When he wakes the next morning he has a thunderous hangover . . . and horns growing from his temples. Ig possesses a terrible new power to go with his terrible new look—a macabre gift he intends to use to find the monster who killed his lover. Being good and praying for the best got him nowhere. Now it's time for revenge . . . [Amazon]

Variety reports that Hill, the son of Stephen King, will executive produce Horns.  Hill has two other literary works in the Hollywood development cycle.  Joel Silver and Akiva Goldsman are developing Heart Shaped Box as a feature film starring Jeffrey Dean Morgan; Jesse McCartney, Miranda Otto, Sarah Bolger, Nick Stahl, and Skylar Gaertner star in the TV series adaptation of Hill's comic book Locke & Key produced by Steven Spielberg, Josh Friedman, Roberto Orci, and Alex Kurtzman.

LaBeouf has recently been linked to several roles:

  • Pinkville - a Vietnam War drama based on a true story, directed by Oliver Stone (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps)
  • College Repbulicans - a comedy/drama set in the university days of Karl Rove
  • The Associate - an adaptation of the John Grisham novel about a young lawyer; Tony Scott (Unstoppable) is attached to direct
  • The Wettest County in the World - a drama about bootleggers in the Prohibition era; Tom Hardy would co-star, John Hillcoat (The Road) will direct

I'm really keen on The Wettest County, and I'm counting on LaBeouf's star power to push the film through a prolonged development.  But Horns sounds horrifically inviting.  I wouldn't mind seeing a horned LaBeouf.  The actor will next be seen in Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which opens July 1.

Transformers Revenge of the Fallen movie image Shia LaBeouf (2)