MacGruber certainly gave Ryan Phillippe a lot more respect in the filmmaking community, or at least in our eyes, but who knew it would be the turning point that saw him go from Ryan Phillipe the actor, to Ryan Phillippe the actor-writer-director. Sure, there were brief stints in between, like a recurring role on Damages and playing the baddie in The Lincoln Lawyer, but it was obviously the impeccably crafted SNL comedy that inspired the still young thespian to make a movie himself, one about fading movie star kidnapped while shooting an indie flick in Louisiana.
Variety reports that Phillippe will write, direct and star in Shreveport, an indie thriller about a down and out actor taken from his film set, held hostage and tortured for, well, reasons still unknown. Perhaps the fictional star made a movie as bad as 54 and audiences are out for revenge? Phillippe co-wrote the script with first time writer Joe Gossett and, since it's being produced by Mark Burg's Twisted Pictures (Saw), I bet the incident gets quite messy. Shreveport is set to shoot in uh, Shreveport, Louisiana sometime this summer and we'll await word on who'll be joining Phillippe on-screen for his first time behind the camera.
As the article notes, Phillippe has worked with a lot of very talented directors and could easily have picked up a lot of good habits. I wonder if working for experienced filmmakers like Ridley Scott, Robert Altman, Clint Eastwood, Kimberly Peirce and Jorma Taccone will rub off? Yes, Jorma Taccone! Seriously. I love MacGruber and if Shreveport at any point turns sour I will simply imagine that the kidnappers have grabbed Lt. Dixon Piper to enacting revenge on behalf of KFBR392. There's your sequel. Please. Please make a sequel.
You can catch Phillipe next alongside Luke Wilson and Anna Paquin in Straight A's, a comedy that comes out December 4, 2012.
