David Mamet hasn’t directed a film since 2008’s underrated “Redbelt.” His indelibly stylish dialogue can be seen and heard in many great films, including “The Verdict,” “The Untouchables,” “Glengary Glen Ross,” and “Wag the Dog.”
I’m hearing Mamet recently wrapped production on his next film, titled “Henry Johnson,” starring Shia LaBoeuf, and that it was shot in just five days. The plan is to release it sometime this year. This would make it Mamet’s first directorial effort in over 15 years.
“Henry Johnson” is based on Mamet’s play, which had 2023 off-Broadway showings at Venice’s Electric Lodge in NYC. Laboeuf plays the cellmate of the show’s titular character, a lawyer who is behind bars for his illegal activities. It’s being described as a “tense prison drama” about a “convict hoping for redemption.”
Coming off his batsh*t crazy performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” LaBoeuf has Bjorn Franklin’s “Salvable” in post-production, and recently dropped out of Eugene Kotlyarenko’s next film, just days before production was set to begin. LaBeouf’s exit was, in his own words, “on account of the unprofessional and unprepared nature of the production.”
Mamet is known for his wittily acidic dialogue. In fact, a term was invented for his style of writing: “Mamet-speak.” Mamet's style of writing is cynical, edgy, street and precisely crafted for effect. Two of Mamet’s more recent scripts, Barry Levinson’s “Assassination” and Cameron Van Hoy’s “The Prince” have been shot and will likely be released this year.
“Assassination” starring Jessica Chastain, Al Pacino, Bryan Cranston and Brendan Fraser, deals with how notorious Chicago mobster Sam Giancana arranged the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as revenge for trying to bring down organized crime, this after the mob helped put JFK in the White House.
More controversially, “The Prince,” otherwise dubbed as “The Hunter Biden Story,” is set to star Nicolas Cage, JK Simmons, Giancarlo Esposito, Andy Garcia and Scott Haze. The film is said to chronicle an addict’s tumultuous odyssey through the high-stakes world of power, pleasure, and pain on a transformative journey toward recovery.