Due to appealingly hefty tax credits and its wide-ranging choice of locations, Louisiana has served as home to a number of recent high-profile productions, but actor Ryan Phillippe is now set to show the darker side to such regional filmmaking with his directorial debut.
Variety reports that Phillippe will direct and act in the indie thriller “Shreveport,” which the “Crash” star also co-wrote with Joe Gossett. The story follows a has-been actor who is kidnapped while filming his latest project in the Louisiana city. As producer Mark Burg is financing the film under his Twisted Pictures (“Saw”) banner, there is sure to be some subsequent torture and blood-letting to follow, but further plot details are being kept under wraps for now.
Phillippe has certainly had enough potential on-set mentoring, from directors such as Clint Eastwood, Robert Altman, and er, Paul Haggis, to glean a modicum of wisdom for his first directorial effort, and it will be notable to see such an invested effort from the actor himself. Of course, it could just be another gruesome horror-thriller with little distinction from the rest, but there does remain a chance for some satirical observations from Phillippe's film career, which dates back to the 1996 Ridley Scott film “White Squall,” and the business in which he works to peek through.
Production on “Shreveport” will begin — guess where? — in Louisiana this summer, and if all goes well, maybe Phillippe will helm “MacGruber 2” if no one else wants to?