The Berlin International Film Festival continues to roll-out its program for its February event, adding new titles to its Panorama and other sections. Many of the titles will debut as world and international premieres, with some titles headed to the festival post-Sundance. New work from the U.S. include Travis Mathews and James Franco's Interior. Leather Bar, Stacie Passon's Concussion, Shane Carruth's Upstream Color as well as new work from Ken Loach and Jane Campion.
more »
Forget all those "most anticipated movies of 2013" lists — there's only one major motion picture event I can't wait to get my mind blown by, and that's Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers. Tween idols on a crime spree, James Franco channeling Riff Raff, the ATL Twins, and love for the pop powerhouse that was '00s-era Britney Spears... who can resist? Are we not human beings? Today Vulture's got the U.S. poster debut to tease the Spring Breakers marketing wave that's coming in the next few months, which will have me floating in a fluorescent fever of anticipation until March.
more »
Polyglot actor-cum-performance artist James Franco has struck again, releasing yet another of his multitudinous side art projects unto the world for dissection and intense theoretical analysis, and — nah, just kidding! Here's a video of Franco lip-synching to Justin Bieber's "Boyfriend" in full Biebs gear, mop top and pubescent cherub-grin and all, as he and Spring Breakers co-star Ashley Benson writhe around in a brunette wig like they're in the world's worst American Apparel ad.
more »
James Franco said he is unlikely to return to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes following the exit of the sequel's director Rupert Wyatt.
more »
The Sundance Film Festival continued its roll out of films playing its 2013 event in January, unveiling its out-of-competition Spotlight, Park City at Midnight and New Frontier sections as well as installations and performances headed to the festival's New Frontier venue.
more »
Guess who's not in Kansas, anymore? That would be James Franco in Oz The Great And Powerful. He plays two-bit magician Oscar Diggs who rides a hot-air balloon into a cyclone and travels from a dusty black-and-white world into a vibrant colorful one populated with munchkins and witches, played by Rachel Weisz, Mila Kunis and Michelle Williams. more »
James Franco as Freddie Quell? It almost happened, the actor revealed during a panel at the Austin Film Festival, until The Master director, Paul Thomas Anderson, asked Franco one little question: "Do you feel like you can do this?"
more »
James Franco is still channeling all those Renaissance Men from - well, the Renaissance. The actor, director, artist, student, musician, model, writer (have I forgotten anything?) hit the Toronto International Film Festival last month promoting his latest in Spring Breakers by director Harmony Korine, in which he plays a low-brow thug. But now it's late September and it's time to roll out with something else. This time, it's a music video with his newly launched musical project, Daddy, with artist Tim O'Keefe.
more »
Prancing around in a fluorescent bikini while going on a partying and crime-fueled rampage through the so-called "red neck riviera" — that could be the one sentence log-line for Toronto's Spring Breakers, which arrived in North America after its first premiere last week in Venice. Fascination with former Disney star Selena Gomez's romp through the new film in a not-quite-so-squeaky-clean role continued on this side of the pond but Gomez, director Harmony Korine and fellow stars James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine provided a few racy laughs of their own in Canada's biggest city Friday. Harmony Korine even joked that a few rugged gentlemen on spring break were taken by Gomez's presence while they shot the feature. "All these thick-necked jock dudes were rubbing up against Selena," he said.
more »
James Franco may be Hollywood's most accomplished, out there polyglot, but one former professor isn't too happy with how the Oscar nominee has spoken publicly of his time as a film student at NYU. José Angel Santana, who was fired in 2011, filed a lawsuit against the actor for calling him "awful" and a "bad teacher" while doing the press rounds for The Broken Tower. “Whoever was in Clint Eastwood’s chair at the Republican National Convention was more present than Mr. Franco was in my classes,” Santana told the NY Post. Oh snap did he just make a Clint RNC chair joke??
more »
Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival is still days away, but festival-goers in Venice will catch the world debut Wednesday and already the film is making some initial waves with "raunchy" and "raucous" being just two operative words to describe the feature about a quartet of sexy college girls whose plan to rob a fast food joint to fund their spring break getaway goes awry. And that is just the beginning. The film stars Selena Gomez, James Franco, Vanessa Hudgens and Heather Morris.
more »
Also in Tuesday afternoon's round-up of news briefs Miramax sells music rights to its film music; A thief in Mexico wearing a mask is holding up theaters playing TDKR; Remembering Irish writer/journalist/playwright Maeve Binchy; And DreamWorks animation posts lower second quarter profits.
more »
Years before Dorothy Gale plopped down in Oz right on top of that mean old stripey-footed wicked witch, a man — not just any man, but James Franco — accidentally found himself in the magical land, blown into a world of Technicolor whirlygigs and CG fairies by Sam Raimi. I mean, by a tornado. But as Raimi (along with surprise guests Michelle Williams and Mila Kunis) explained to the crowded Hall H audience Thursday at Comic-Con, his Oz won't have that much to do with the 1939 classic; for starters, those ruby slippers? Nowhere to be found.
more »
Also in Monday afternoon's round-up of news briefs, Drafthouse Films picks up a lauded film festival circuit doc for U.S. release. James Franco has tapped an Outfest filmmaker to make a 'Homo-Sex-Art-Film.' And rounding things out, casting news for a pair of projects.
more »
Also in Monday morning's mostly Cannes news briefs: Samuel Goldwyn picks up Un Certain Regard debut for U.S., James Franco's collaborator heads to premiere documentary festival, Thomas Vinterberg resurfaces in Cannes with his latest, and for those lamenting a "No-Cannes-Do" this year, the weather has been pretty abysmal.
more »
