Shia LaBeouf And David Ayer Reunite For ‘The Tax Collector’
Shia LaBeoufandDavid Ayer, who previously worked together on the World War II tank dramaFury, will re-team for a film calledThe Tax Collector. What’s it about? Who the hell knows! Taxes, probably.
Break out your W-9s and 1040s –TheTax Collectoris coming! Perhaps Batman’s most notorious villain,The Tax Collectoris getting his own spin-off film! Oh, wait, my mistake.The Tax Collectoris not a Batman villain at all. Instead, it’s the name of a new gritty L.A. crime thriller fromBrightandSuicide Squaddirector David Ayer.Deadlinereports Ayer will reunite withFuryactor Shia LaBeouf for the thriller, which “harkens back to Ayer’s earlier gritty crime thrillersTraining Day(which he wrote and Antoine Fuqua directed) andEnd of Watch, which Ayer directed.”
And that’s really all we know. There are no plot details here. We know LaBeouf will co-star along withBobby Soto, and that Ayer is at the helm. So it’s hard to get overly excited about all of this without any specific details. I’m a bit mixed on Ayer – I thoughtTraining Daywas fantastic, but most of the other films he’s been associated with – especiallySuicide SquadandSabotage– have been downright terrible. That said,Furyshowed some promise, so perhaps the secret to making a David Ayer movie work is to add Shia LaBeouf into the mix.
Personal problems aside, I actuallydothink LaBeouf is a good actor when given the right material. I know a lot of people loathe him because of his appearance inIndiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, but he more often than not turns in a good performance. Heck, I’ll go so far as to say that I thought he was pretty good inCrystal Skullas well, but I know I’m in the minority there.
Word is thatThe Tax Collectoris Ayer’s next project, which meansBright 2, another Ayer film in the works, will have to wait a little longer. Ayer helmed the firstBright– a gritty crime film set in a world full of magic – for Netflix. Critics werenothappy withBright, but Netflix was pleased as punch. So much so that theygreenlit a sequelbeforeBrighteven dropped onto the streaming service.Bright 2will bring back Will Smith and Joel Edgerton, and will likely feature more of Ayer’s signature grittiness. For a while, Ayer was attached to a standaloneHarley Quinn/Gotham City Sirensmovie spun-off fromSuicide Squad. However, that’s no longer the case, as DC and Warner Bros. have since hiredCathy Yanto helm the Harley-centric film.
