“James Franco doing a movie about the creation of legendary disasterpiece The Room” was a tantalizing prospect when first announced, either a brilliant turn for his career-spanning preoccupation with artifice in showbiz or another insufferable bout of navel-gazing. The first trailer for the comedy due December 1 (before going wide on December 8) isn’t really either, landing somewhere closer to Hail, Caesar! in its farcical send-up of filmmaking frustration. 2017 has gotten its “Would that it t’were so simple,” now say it with me: “I did not hit her, it’s not true, it’s bullsh*t, I did not hit her, I did not. Oh hi, Mark.”
James and Dave Franco joining forces to turn one of the wildest books about one of the wildest movie shoots into a movie of its own sounded too good (or too weird) to be true when The Disaster Artist was first announced, but they did it, and A24 snatched it up after it debuted at SXSW this year, and the first teaser is on its way tomorrow. But before all that, A24 debuted a shiny new poster for the movie, which sees James Franco going full Wiseau in a recording studio.
HBO is one week from its flagship hit’s return, so those fall offerings will get some extra push. And speaking of exploitation – here’s a double-dose of James Franco, as The Wire creator David Simon takes us through porn history with a trailer for HBO’s The Deuce.
HBO’s last venture into ‘70s New York didn’t end so well, but a double-dose of James Franco, sprinkled with The Wire creator David Simon and a dash of porn might do the trick. See for yourself, as a first official teaser-trailer for HBO’s The Deuce promises a September premiere.
Fox has done a nice job of hyping Alien: Covenant with videos setting up the movie’s story. “The Crossing” explains what happened to the survivors from Prometheus in between the two films. And “The Last Supper,” embedded above, features the crew of the spaceship Covenant at the beginning of their mission to colonize a distant planet. These aren’t traditional trailers or teasers; they’re full “prologue” scenes released on YouTube. In Alien terms, this kind of marketing is like hugging someone’s face to prime them for a hideous creature bursting out of their chest.
The world has come one step closer to bearing witness to the full scope of James Franco’s artistic vision. As the latest component of his ongoing interrogation of celebrity, performance, artifice, and vague pseudo-intellectualism, he’s adapted The Disaster Artist, actor Greg Sestero’s true account of his time behind the scenes of the calamitous production of The Room. Famed as one of the most bafflingly incompetent movies of all time, the real weirdness came off set, where director/writer/financier/star/madman Tommy Wiseau (played by Franco in the movie) engaged Sestero in a bizarre, homoerotically charged rivalry. Which makes the fact that Franco’s brother Dave will play Sestero just that much stranger.
If you read up on the life of explorer Gertrude Bell, it’s abundantly clear that this is a woman whose story should be told. In 2003, The Guardian devoted an entire article to the influence her cartography had on the modern Middle East, with Bell practically drawing the country border of Iraq by her lonesome. And now audiences will be able to explore her legacy with Queen of the Desert (via Deadline), a new film starring Nicole Kidman and both written and directed by the legendary Werner Herzog.
Well, if James Franco and Seth Rogen couldn’t make an ‘80s teen series work out, they might have better luck in the ‘90s. We’ll find out, as the Pineapple Express pair are teaming with Hulu and screenwriter/media personality Kelly Oxford for a new ‘90s teen drama.
Look, there’s no two ways about the fact that James Franco playing mustachioed twins for The Wire creator David Simon’s ‘70s New York porn drama is funny. There is no ceiling on “Peak Franco,” and these first official photos from The Deuce certainly aren’t about to find one.