Shia LaBeouf goes on the run in 'Eagle Eye'
FALL SNEAKS: ON THE SET
His Jerry Shaw is framed as a terrorist.
EARLY IN the upcoming tech-thriller "Eagle Eye," a suspected terrorist is in the back seat of an SUV bouncing along a rugged road in Afghanistan as a U.S. spy drone follows it from the skies overhead. The drone detects a cellphone in the car, captures its number and sends it to Washington. Intelligence agents dial the number and, as its owner starts to answer it, they order the camera to snap a photo, which is then transmitted to a distant American command center where a missile attack is being considered.
Even with that kind of eye-popping technology, the world is still complicated: "Is it him?" the officials ask as they study the grainy image and move forward with the airstrike despite their qualms. That's the crux of this DreamWorks film: More technology doesn't necessarily eliminate human error and sometimes it creates a high-definition version of human corruption.
The film, which opens Sept. 26, reteams star Shia LaBeouf with director D.J. Caruso, a tandem that worked together on the 2007 hit "Disturbia," a sort of "Rear Window" for the 21st century with its tense tale of voyeurism and suspicion. If LaBeouf was Jimmy Stewart last time, in “Eagle Eye” he's channeling Cary Grant in his "North by Northwest" man-on-the-run mode. LaBeouf portrays a scruffy, bright underachiever who comes home one afternoon to find his apartment piled high with mail-order weapons and bomb ingredients -- he's been framed as a terrorist and he spends the rest of the film essentially running for his life.
Caruso said he hopes the film is very much of the moment with its web of political intrigue and sleek high-tech sensibility: "To me, the film falls in line with those great 1970s films like 'The Parallax View' and 'Three Days of the Condor,' but with a lot more hardware. It's a big, fun, popcorn movie, there's a lot happening and a lot of thrills, but we have a very strong cast and these themes that are very much a part of the world today."
Caruso said that on a chilly night in February, not far from skid row in downtown Los Angeles. He and his crew were filming a car chase scene, one of many high-adrenaline moments in the movie. Caruso also directed "Two for the Money" with Al Pacino and "Taking Lives" with Angelina Jolie, as well as the critically acclaimed 2002 neo-noir film "The Salton Sea" with Val Kilmer. That latter film was pretty far removed from the big-budget explosions of "Eagle Eye," but Caruso said he hopes this movie doesn't lose its story nuances amid the falling debris.
