EXCLUSIVE: Shia LaBeouf is set to star in God of the Rodeo, with Giannina Scott producing through her Cara Films banner and Ridley Scott and Michael Pruss producing through Scott Free Films. The crime thriller was written and directed by Rosalind Ross and is based on the reporting of Daniel Bergner inside the deadliest prison in the American South.
Set against the brutal backdrop of Louisiana’s Angola Prison in 1967, God of the Rodeo tells the story of Buckkey, a hardened inmate serving a life sentence who finds a glimmer of redemption in an unlikely opportunity: the prison’s first-ever inmate rodeo. As Buckkey and his fellow inmates prepare for a last grasp at glory, they’re confronted with the reality that the rodeo is nothing more than a gladiatorial showcase — a grueling fight for survival designed to satiate the public’s bloodlust and fulfill the warden’s delusion of godliness.
LaBeouf can currently be seen in Lionsgate’s Salvable, which follows an aging boxer struggling to escape the grip of a small town while navigating a fractured relationship with his teenage daughter. The film bowed Friday in limited release. He also stars in Henry Johnson, David Mamet’s first feature film in more than a decade. Adapted from Mamet’s 2023 stage play, the film reunites the play’s original cast — LaBeouf, Evan Jonigkeit, Chris Bauer and Dominic Hoffman — in a moral drama about a man whose act of compassion upends his life, sending him on a journey of manipulation and ethical uncertainty as he seeks guidance from authority figures.
LaBeouf also starred in Francis Ford Coppola’s science-fiction drama Megalopolis alongside Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza and Dustin Hoffman. The film premiered at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and delves into the conflict between a visionary artist seeking a utopian future and those entrenched in a regressive status quo, driven by greed, special interests and partisan conflict. He is repped John Crosby Management and attorney Matthew Saver.
Ross’ spec script Barbarian earned a spot on the 2016 Black List and is being produced by Atlas Entertainment. She wrote and directed the biographical drama Father Stu, starring and produced by Mark Wahlberg, which was released by Sony Pictures in 2022. She is repped by Range Media Partners, Heroes and Villains Entertainment and Jackoway Austen.
Giannina Scott is next producing Children of the Jungle, alongside Scott Free’s Ridley Scott and Pruss for 20th Century Studios, with Roberto Bentivegna penning the script. Giannina Scott’s relationship with Bentivegna began when she brought him on board to adapt and write House of Gucci starring Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Al Pacino, Jack Huston, Salma Hayek and Jeremy Irons. That 2021 movie was produced by Giannina Scott and Scott Free, with Ridley Scott directing for MGM. Prior to that, Giannina Scott produced Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House starring Liam Neeson and Diane Lane and written and directed by Peter Landesman. She also produced the Will Smith-starring Concussion, the Sony Pictures drama that followed the true story of neuropathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu who made the first discovery of CTE, a football-related brain trauma, and fought to expose the dangers of the sport.
