James Franco has been very keen on adapting a Cormac McCarthy novel to film. It was going to be Blood Meridian, and Franco in fact shot some test footage (with Mark Pellegrino, Scott Glenn, Dave Franco and Luke Perry) in 2010 to prove to producer Scott Rudin that he had the goods to make the movie. But Franco and Rudin fell out, and so Franco is one of several directors who have tried and failed to bring the challenging Blood Meridian to the screen.
Franco is evidently undaunted on the McCarthy front, however, as he is now reportedly at work on a film version of the author’s third novel Child of God. This one is a bit less challenging than Blood Meridian, but no less intense and, potentially, controversial. Read More »
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Posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 by Angie Han
Whether you love James Franco or can’t stand him, it can’t be denied that the man works hard. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate already — what with films including Oz: The Great and Powerful, Lovelace, Spring Breakers, and his directorial effort The Broken Tower all coming up, plus all of his non-movie projects — he’s now added Mapplethorpe, a biopic of the late photographer. The Tribeca-backed picture will be the first narrative feature by documentary director Ondi Timoner (Dig!, We Live in Public).
Franco will topline the cast as Robert Mapplethorpe, whose explicit works sparked debate over public funding for the arts in the late 1980s. Between this and Howl, it seems Franco’s becoming the go-to guy for historical movies about controversial artists. Timoner, Miles Levy, and Eliza Dushku will produce along with Nate Dushku (Eliza’s brother), who was lined up to play Mapplethorpe at one point before Franco came on board. [The Hollywood Reporter]
After the jump, Emma Roberts refuses to let James Franco bail her out of jail.
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You have to give James Franco credit for trying a great many different things, from graduate studies to acting to writing and directing short films and transitioning up to features. Franco has plans to adapt a couple of the more challenging authors around, Cormac McCarthy (Blood Meridian) and William Faulkner (As I Lay Dying), in the immediate future.
But first there is The Broken Tower, a film about poet Hart Crane that Franco wrote, directed and stars in, with Michael Shannon and Dave Franco also playing roles. The film premiered at the LA Film Festival to mixed reviews, and now that the first teaser trailer has arrived, you’ll probably be able to guess some of the reasons for the shaky reception. Read More »
James Franco is in talks to star in MGM’s big screen adaptation of the bestselling book The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss. Franco would not be playing the Strauss character however, but instead the chatacter of Mystery, a master pick-up artist who teaches Neil the tricks of the trade and introduces him into the world of “the game.” Some of you might recall that the real life Mystery starred in a VH1 reality series spawned by the success of the book called “The Pick-Up Artist”.
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Posted on Tuesday, December 20th, 2011 by Angie Han
Bruce Campbell doesn’t appear in all of Sam Raimi‘s films, but in the years since their work on the Evil Dead movies, the actor’s become a familiar — if small — presence in many of them. So we were a bit disappointed last month to hear that Campbell wouldn’t be making a cameo in Raimi’s next picture, Oz: The Great and Powerful, despite earlier reports that he’d been slated to appear. But now it seems Campbell’s back in after all, and what’s more, that he’s already shot his “pivotal” (not really) part. More details after the jump.
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The cast of Lovelace, one of two competing biopics about porn star and eventual anti-porn crusader Linda Lovelace, has added four actors and might be getting a high-profile fifth. Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, who co-directed Howl, have already got Amanda Seyfried to play Lovelace and Peter Sasgaard for the role of her husband and accused pimp and abuser Chuck Traynor.
Now they have roped in Hank Azaria, Bobby Cannavale, Chris Noth and Robert Patrick to play various roles, and may have Howl headliner James Franco onboard to play Playboy founder Hugh Hefner. Read More »
Posted on Friday, December 9th, 2011 by Angie Han
There’s still no word on who’ll be playing Éponine in Tom Hooper‘s Les Misérables, but the project has landed yet another well-known star to play her father. According to LondonNet, Sacha Baron Cohen is set to join Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, and Eddie Redmayne in the musical, in the role of the villainous inn owner Monsieur Thénardier. Helena Bonham Carter was said to be in talks to play Thénardier’s wife earlier this year, but it’s not clear whether she’s actually attached at this point.
Cohen did a bit of singing in his last big-screen musical, Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and is slated to do still more as the lead of that Freddie Mercury biopic from producer Graham King. In terms of non-singing roles, Cohen recently appeared in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo, and already has three more movies scheduled to open next year — The Dictator, Madagascar 3, and Django Unchained. Get used to that face, because you’ll be seeing a lot of it in 2012.
Les Misérables opens December 7, 2012. [via The Playlist]
After the jump, a Disney gal decides it’s time to break into more mature territory, and Diablo Cody’s next project finds a mom for Julianne Hough.
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He’s played the Human Torch, and now Chris Evans will be in The Iceman. This is a movie about a different Iceman, though — one wholly unrelated to Marvel’s mutant supporting character.
There are two biopics brewing of Richard ‘The Iceman’ Kuklinski — one called The Ice Man: Confessions Of A Mafia Contract Killer, starring Mickey Rourke as the Iceman. Then there is this one, which features Michael Shannon as the hit man, and now boasts Chris Evans in a role once earmarked for James Franco. Read More »
