Shaffer Chimere Smith is living two lives. In one he's a singer songwriter on Def Jam records, whose albums regularly top the Billboard charts. The other life is lived in films, exclusively thus far with a musical bent, like Stomp the Yard and Save the Last Dance 2. In both, he goes by the alias Ne-Yo. And both have a future, although broadening his film CV seems to be the current focus, with the announcement from The Hollywood Reporter that he's signed on to star in the decidedly non-dancy Battle: Los Angeles.
Columbia's sci-fi war movie, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, will also star Aaron Eckhart, Michelle Rodriguez, Bridget Moynahan, Michael Pena, and Ramon Rodriguez. The human cast of the alien invasion story seems split between miltary types and kids holed up in a community centre.
Sounds like there may be shades of a Katrina allegory there, so it's fitting that the film is shooting in Shreveport and Baton Rouge, Louisiana (standing in for LA, obviously: there are tax breaks for filming in the south).
Obviously feeling the Creole influence, Ne-Yo will also be writing and singing the closing song for Disney's The Princess and the Frog.