After taking a sharp career turn in the hard-R drama Lawless this summer, Shia LaBeouf is (intentionally) leaving blockbusters behind with a major role in Robert Redford‘s political thriller The Company You Keep, as well Lars von Trier‘s erotic drama The Nymphomaniac. Today we’ve got a first look at another upcoming film featuring the star with The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman.

Above, thanks to Collider, one can see LaBeouf in the title role of the drama, which comes from Fredrik Bond in his directorial debut. In the film, our lead falls in love with a woman (played by Evan Rachel Wood, also above) who is owned by a crime boss and things turn violent. Releasing this photo today hopefully indicates we’ll see this at Sundance, but we’ll have to wait until this afternoon when the Premiere section gets announced to see if that’s the case. The project also brings together Mads Mikkelsen, Melissa Leo, Til Schweiger, Rupert Grint, James Buckley and Vincent D’Onofrio and one can see a synopsis below.

Charlie Countryman (LaBeouf) was just a normal guy…until he fell in love with the one girl who will probably get him killed. When Charlie meets the absolutely irresistible Gabi she’s already been claimed by Nigel, an insanely violent crime boss with a gang of thugs at his disposal. Armed with little more than his wit and naïve charm, Charlie endures one bruising beat down after another to woo Gabi and keep her out of harm’s way. Finally his exploits of blind valor create such a mess that he’s left with only one way out; to save the girl of his dreams, must Charlie Countryman die?

Expect The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman on next year’s festival circuit.