Hollywood actor Michael Shannon is set to make his directorial debut with the upcoming movie "Eric Larue".
The film is the official adaptation of a play of the same title from Brett Neveu that debuted at A Red Orchid Theatre in Chicago in 2002, according to Deadline.
Neveu is on board the project as he is adapting his original play, which he wrote in response to the 1999 mass shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado.
The story is about Janice, the mother of 17-year-old Eric, who shot and killed three of his classmates.
As Janice faces a meeting of the mothers of the other boys, and a long-delayed visit to her son in prison, the story becomes not about the violence but about what we choose to think and do in order to survive trauma.
“'Eric Larue' has so much to say about our country, about the way we try (sometimes quite ineptly) to deal with the trauma of living here, which is so insidious because it does not present itself overtly in concrete terms most of the time,” said Shannon, best known for movies such as "Mud", "Midnight Special", "The Shape of Water" and "Knives Out".
“Like most great stories, 'Eric Larue' plays at the macro and micro level simultaneously. When I read the screenplay, I immediately knew I had to direct it. I saw it. I heard it. I could feel it. And I wanted to make sure that it received just the right touch in all its aspects, because at the end of the day, it is an extraordinarily delicate thing," he added.
Sarah Green from Brace Cove Productions is producing the project along with Karl Hartman from Big Indie Pictures and Jina Panebianco from CaliWood Pictures.
The movie is executive produced by Jeff Nichols, R Wesley Sierk III, Byron Wetzel, Meghan Schumacher, Joh D Straley and Declan Baldwin.
On the acting front, Shannon will next be seen in Brad Pitt-led "Bullet Train" and "George and Tammy", co-starring Jessica Chastain.
[With Inputs From PTI]
