David Farnor | On 08, Aug 2019

“My dad’s not the reason I drink. He’s the reason I work.” That’s Otis (Lucas Hedges) in the new trailer for Amazon’s Honey Boy.

From a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf, based on his own experiences, award-winning filmmaker Alma Har’el (Bombay Beach, LoveTrue) brings to life a young actor’s stormy childhood and early adult years as he struggles to reconcile with his father and deal with his mental health. Fictionalizing his ascent to stardom, and subsequent crash-landing into rehab and recovery, Har’el casts Noah Jupe (A Quiet Place) and Hedges as Otis Lort, navigating different stages in a frenetic career. LaBeouf plays a version of his own father, an ex-rodeo clown and a felon.

Dancer-singer FKA twigs also makes her feature-film debut, playing a neighbour and kindred spirit to the younger Otis in their garden-court motel home. Har’el’s feature narrative debut is a one-of-a-kind collaboration between filmmaker and subject, exploring art as medicine and imagination as hope through the life and times of a talented, traumatised performer who dares to go in search of himself.

Produced by Endeavor Content and CAA Media Finance, Honey Boy premiered at Sundance at the start of the year, winning the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft and promptly getting snapped up by Amazon Studios. Now, we’ve got our first taste of what caught the online giant’s eyes. Here’s the video:

 

Sundance: Amazon snaps up Shia LaBeouf’s Honey Boy

3rd February 2019

Amazon has completed its Sundance shopping spree this week with perhaps its most notable title of all: Honey Boy, the new movie from Shia LaBeouf.

Written bythe actor and based on his own upbringing, the film stars Lucas Hedges and Noah Jupe as “Otis”, a child TV star who begins to find success at the tender age of 12. At that point, his ex-rodeo-clown father returns to serve as his guardian, and they spend their time in an extended-stay motel on the edge of Hollywood.

Directed by Alma Har’el, the movie follows the father and son’s contentious relationship and their attempts to mend it over the course of a decade, exploring the lasting effects of abuse while retaining a warmth at its heart. LaBeouf plays his father.

Produced by Endeavor Content and CAA Media Finance, Honey Boy premiered at Sundance on Friday 25th January, and has since gone on to win the festival’s U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Vision and Craft. The global rights were bought by Amazon Studios for a reported $5 million, joining other Amazon acquisitions The Report, Brittany Runs a Marathon and Late Night.

Photo: Courtesy of Sundance Institute

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