Jason Merritt/Getty ImagesIf you're looking for a positive outlook, do not ask Shia LaBeouf.
When asked by a reporter during a press conference for his new movie, Man Down, Tuesday to predict the future, LaBeouf did not give a heartwarming response. Instead, he gave a rather bleak answer.
"We're in a tough spot. The world's in a tough spot. It's like World War III, right?" LaBeouf told the audience at the Toronto International Film Festival. "We're in the middle of something really wild going on, more so than ever in my life, I think."
Man Down is Dito Montiel's post-apocalyptic portrait of America in which LaBeouf's character, U.S. Marine Gabriel Drummer, searches desperately for his wife (Kate Mara) and son with the help of his best friend and a survivor. The movie doesn't make the future look great, but Mara maintained a more uplifting attitude than her co-star when she was asked the same question.
"I hope the future of our world is not as pictured as in this picture," she said. "Man, I don't know. I'm just an actor"
Adam Simon, who wrote the film, told the crowd that the inspiration for it stemmed from his former life as a homeless man. "I was living on the street when I started writing Man Down. In fact, there's a letter that Gabriel [LaBeouf] writes to his son in the film that was a letter that I wrote to my son one night in a parking garage, where I slept, where I stayed the night," he recalled.
While living on the streets, however, he met many U.S. war veterans, so he turned the script into a larger story.
"I felt it was more important to tell the story of veterans that I kept coming in contact with on the streets," he explained.
We can only hope the future isn't as grim as the former Transformers star made it out to be.