It's Thursday and Oz The Great and Powerful has topped $300 million worldwide at box office, according to Deadline. So, the Franco File is going to celebrate with a clip of what is arguably the best part of the movie: the black-and-white pre-CGI opening credits sequence. more »
Look at this shit! It's Wednesday afternoon, and time for The Franco File, Movieline's daily — at least for this week — coverage of James Franco's genre- and gender-bending multimedia artistry. On Monday, I brought you, "Hangin'With Da Dopeboys," the JF-directed video from Florida rapper Dangeruss, who inspired the actor's Alien character in Spring Breakers. On Tuesday, it was time for another Franco-helmed clip for his band Daddy. And today? Another clip! But this one's more of a rap video, in which Franco does a turn-off-your-cellphones PSA for the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX that riffs on one of Alien's Spring Breakers monologues and references key moments from Pulp Fiction and Spider-Man. The video has like three endings, too, which is part of Franco's I'm-flying-on-instruments genius. more »
It's Tuesday afternoon, time to figure out what James Franco has done today to merit our attention. Well, lookie here: The Spring Breakers star has donned lipstick, eye shadow and a Rolling Rock cap to promote the release of the music video for "Love in the Old Days (Ted James 1999 Mix)" by his band with fellow Rhode Island School of Design alumnus Tim O'Keefe. Better yet, Franco directed the clip and cast one of his underground idols, Scorpio Rising filmmaker and Hollywood Babylon author Kenneth Anger as a theremin-playing occult priest. Yeah, it's that kind of freaky. more »
It's only Monday and James Franco is already having a good week. And that could translate to a good week for Florida rapper Dangeruss, too. Despite Franco's much-maligned performance in Oz The Great and Powerful, the movie was the top performer at the box office this past weekend, earning $42.2 million domestically, and the blogosphere is already championing him for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his work as the drug dealer Alien in Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers. Meanwhile, that picture, which opens wide this weekend, racked up the best per-screen average of the year so far — $90,000 — in limited release at three theaters. more »
If James Franco reads his reviews, he should avoid David Edelstein's critique of Oz The Great and Powerful at Vulture.com. "Franco is unconvincing generally, tamping down the passion, ironicizing everything out," wrote Edelstein. "It’s possible Franco’s modern-sounding stammers and shrugs opposite actors playing it straight are meant in the spirit of Bob Hope’s hipster cowards — or those of Woody Allen, who cited Hope among his inspirations for Sleeper and Love and Death. But Franco doesn’t have the comebacks. He’s playing a noncommittal character in a noncommittal way, so that you want to scream, “This isn’t a performance-art project! You’re carrying a movie!” more »
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