shiaMandate Pictures has attached Shia LaBeouf to star in The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, a Mandate Pictures film that will be directed by hot commercials helmer Dante Ariola from a Matt Drake script. LaBeouf will play the title character, a normal guy who falls in love with a woman who might get him killed, since she has been claimed by an insanely violent crime boss. Numerous beat downs by his ruthless rival and his gang members don’t sway the young man’s determination to court the young woman and remove her from harm’s way, even if it kills him.

Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa of Bona Fide Productions will produce with William Horberg, and Dean Parisot and Mandate president Nathan Kahane executive producers. They hope to start production in the fall. LaBeouf, who’ll be in Cannes for the premiere of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, will next reprise in Transformers 3. Ariola has filmed commercials for Coke, Levi’s, Nike and Sony Playstation, among others. The script, which made the Black List, was written by Matt Drake. Drake also wrote the Todd Phillips-Joel Silver-produced Warner Bros comedy that is untitled but being called Project X.

Get the latest Industry news sent straight to your Wall.