Is Shia LaBeouf eyeing a comeback?

Months after reportedly taking a break from acting, Shia LaBeouf may be planning a comeback.

Filmmaker Abel Ferrara tells Variety that the Transformers actor has signed on for a role in his next film, which chronicles the younger years of Italian Saint Padre Pio. Ferrara’s frequent collaborator and close friend Willem Dafoe is also reportedly eyeing a role in the film.

“We’re doing a film about Padre Pio, he’s a monk from Puglia,” says Ferrara. “It’s set in Italy right after World War I.  He’s now a saint, he had stigmata.  He was also in the middle of a very heavy political period in world history.  He was very young before he became a saint, so Shia LaBeouf is going to play the monk.”

The news comes eight months after LeBeouf’s former girlfriend, singer FKA Twigs, filed a lawsuit against him accusing the 35-year-old actor of physical abuse during their relationship.  Two months later, sources told Variety that LaBeouf made the decision to take a break from acting.

LaBeouf, whose other films include Disturbia and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, recently starred in David Ayer’s action flick The Tax Collector.  He was last seen in Pieces of a Woman, opposite Vanessa Kirby.

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