Shia LaBeouf Cast as Devilish Protagonist in 'Horns'

By Moviefone Editors Posted Mar 17th 2011 02:45PM

'Transformers' star Shia LaBeouf is said to star in 'Horns,' the big-screen adaptation of a novel by Stephen King's son, writer Joe Hill, according to a report in Variety. Mandalay Pictures will head the adaptation.

The 24-year-old LaBeouf will play Iggy Perrish, a 26-year-old who awakens from a blackout hangover to find horns sprouting from his head. If that weren't enough, Ig has to contend with the unsolved murder of his girlfriend, a murder everyone thinks he committed.

The horns come with a blessing of sorts -- they give him the power to make people admit things to him, and he sets out to investigate his sweetheart's death and uncover the connection between the murder and his new dilemma.

"Some f**king awesome news on HORNS tonight," Hill wrote Wednesday on Twitter. "Maybe slightly less news to me - I've known for a while - but its nice that its out there. He'll make a great Ig."

The role is a welcome step toward real dramatic acting for LaBeouf, whose role in 'Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps' left much to be desired but whose turn as a crippled young man in Shekhar Kapur's episode of 'New York, I Love You,' was fabulous.

Keith Bunin ('In Treatment') is adapting the book, which Hill optioned to Mandalay in October 2009, before it was even published by William Morrow.

Hill's graphic novel saga, 'Locke & Key,' is on its way to becoming a FOX series, and his debut novel, 'Heart-Shaped Box,' has been optioned as well. Asked about all the big-screen attention on his work with no results to judge yet, Hill told GQ in 2010, "I'll be completely stoked, even if it's bad."