Like hesitant squirrels creeping nervously towards an unguarded bird feeder, Shia LaBeouf and The Road director John Hillcoat are warily considering the prospect of a new hot crime script called Triple Nine.
Penned by producer/editor Matt Cooke on spec, the drama would follow a gang of crooked police officers working out the details of a massive heist when they suddenly hit upon a deadly wrinkle: in order to pull off the job, they’ll have to shoot another officer. Their pick is our hero, a straight-arrow type who has no idea people from his own force are plotting to murderlise him.
Neither the actor or director (who at one point had planned to work together on The Promised Land) have started to actually negotiate a deal for the film (they’re just interested) and it seems likely that real commitments will wait until the project has a studio home (The Wrap reports that Warner Bros. is in active talks to pick it up).
And both LaBeouf and Hillcoat have several other possible projects in their hoppers, so it might be a while before we saw movement on this even if they do sign up.
Oh, in case you were wondering about 999 in an American context? It might summon the emergency services for us regular types in the UK and a few other countries (like Singapore), but in the US, it’s a police radio call code that indicates an officer needs help urgently.