The actor said his health was affected by the fallout from the cyber-attack on Sony Pictures, who were targeted thanks to Franco’s film The Interview
James Franco has said that the furore around his comedy The Interview, which prompted a devastating hack on Sony Pictures and threats of terrorism against US cinemas, affected his health.
“There was this pressure. There was so much attention on it — attention on a level you never expected. It was a shock to my system, and I got sick,” he said. “But I was never scared for my safety or anything.”
In The Interview, Franco plays a blowhard talk show host, chaperoned by his producer played by Seth Rogen – the pair are hired by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong-un after the pair secure an interview with the North Korean leader. The storyline angered a hacking group linked to the country, who leaked a vast amount of data from Sony, and whose terror threats caused the film to be pulled from cinemas. It has since been successful via on-demand services and a small theatrical release in independent cinemas, earning $45m.
Franco added: “It was a situation where there was nothing for me to do to. As soon as they called the press off, and the movie was pulled from theatres, there was nothing to do. They weren’t looking to me to make any decisions. It was just sitting around and staying quiet.”
His comments came in an interview about his new film I Am Michael, directed by Justin Kelly and executive produced by Gus Van Sant, which has premiered at the Sundance film festival. It’s the true story of Michael Glatze, a gay rights campaigner who renounced his sexuality and turned to Christianity. Franco met with Glatze at the premiere, and said that: “I think the movie has helped him release some of these extreme views that basically gays are sinners. And that it’s helped him heal a little bit and maybe showed him that just because he doesn’t want to identify as gay doesn’t mean he has to completely destroy or condemn everything about gay lifestyles.”
Sundance 2015 review: I Am Michael – James Franco’s gay pastor hits the straight and shallow
2 / 5 stars
Sex! Religion! James Franco! Zachary Quinto! So why is this real-life tale of a gay activist who becomes a married minister getting the Sundance flock yawning in the pews?
Read more
On a threesome scene between Franco, Zachary Quinto and Charlie Carver, Franco said: “I can’t even remember what happened. I think I was going for it more than they were.”Reviewing the film for the Guardian at Sundance, Jordan Hoffman wasn’t particularly taken with it: “It feels as if it’s hewing too close to both an agenda and the truth of the story, instead of exploring the emotional and intellectual truths that lie beneath it… [it] is fatally unsure of its own identity.”
By admin • 0 comments • 28 | 'The Interview' |
By admin • 0 comments • 37 | I Am Michael • Movie Stills |
I have add movie still from I am Michael to the gallery.
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By admin • 0 comments • 44 | I Am Michael • Sundance |
James Franco and Zachary Quinto ribbed and praised their I Am Michael director, newcomer Justin Kelly, during an interview about the ambitious new film, which just premiered at Sundance. Speaking with Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers, the trio talked about the film’s roots, the experience making it and the reaction it garnered from the real Michael Glatze, a former gay rights activist turned evangelical Christian pastor.
Franco, who plays Glatze, explained the story first came to his attention when executive producer Gus Van Sant sent him a link to Benoit Denizet-Lewis’ 2011 New York Times Magazine article “My Ex-Gay Friend.” The article detailed Glatze’s rise within the gay rights movement, as well as his spiritual crisis, conversion and ultimate split from his lover and the gay community as a whole — a story Van Sant believed could make a great movie.
“At first I thought, ‘You think this would make a great movie, Gus? I don’t know,'” Franco remembered with a laugh. “But I just kind of went on faith. We kept going with it…Gus recommended Justin [to direct], who had been an assistant editor on Milk and saw all my nude scenes from Milk in detail — he still has them!”
I Am Michael marks Kelly’s full-length feature debut as a director, and Quinto praised him for establishing a collaborative spirit right from the beginning. “It permeated the whole journey that we took together,” he said. “He didn’t have to max out his credit cards, but it’s not like people were throwing money at him and giving him free rein; we were working under some pretty some serious constraints at the time.”
As for the real Michael Glatze’s reaction to the film, all three were pleased — if not somewhat surprised — to say that he thoroughly enjoyed it. “He came up to each of us and said, ‘Thank you,'” Franco said. “I guess we did the whole experience justice.”
By admin • 0 comments • 26 | True Story |
(Reuters) – Killing an exaggerated version of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Sony’s controversial comedy “The Interview” wasn’t a problem for actor James Franco but he found challenges in playing real-life murderer Christian Longo for thriller “True Story.”
“He’s probably the worst person that I’ve ever played, just because I have such a great family and there’s just something so horrible about killing your kids. So I have very little connection to him,” Franco told Reuters.
“True Story,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday and will be released by Fox Searchlight in U.S. theaters on April 10, is based on the memoir of former New York Times journalist Mike Finkel, who formed a friendship with a murderer who used his name as an alias.
What unfolds is a complex relationship as Finkel, played by Jonah Hill, meets Franco’s Longo, an Oregon man awaiting trial for brutally killing his wife and three children. The two men find common ground in writing but the dynamic wavers as each man struggles with his search for intellectual credibility.
“I think it’s to do with nemesis. I think it’s a very male thing,” said director Rupert Goold, who made his film debut with “True Story.”
Goold, a British theater director, said much of “True Story” played out like Shakespeare’s “Othello,” a story of male friendship and betrayal.
To prepare, Franco watched tapes of Longo testifying at his 2003 trial, which he called “chilling,” but he opted not to visit the convicted killer currently on Death Row.
“There was no need to go and meet him, and I certainly didn’t want to give him any attention or validation by doing that,” he said.
Franco and Hill starred together in Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s raunchy 2013 apocalypse spoof, “This is the End,” and Hill is well known for his comedic roles in films such as “The Wolf of Wall Street.”
But the duo spun a twist on their friendship to play out the drama of “True Story,” which Franco said was essential for the movie to work.
“You need the audience to, on some level, want to watch this budding friendship,” Franco said.
“Because Jonah and I do have a history, people do know us in a different, more comedic sphere, our relationship in this film had a little something extra because of that.”
By admin • 0 comments • 28 | Gallery Update" Movie caps |
I have add Spider-Man 2 dvd caps to the gallery.
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By admin • 0 comments • 27 | Future Relic |
Juliette Lewis, Ethan Suplee, Lukas Haas and Ronald Gutman will join James Franco in a feature film version of “Future Relic.” This is an expansion of a nine minute short film called “Future Relic,” written and directed by multidisciplinary artist Daniel Arsham. Producer is Courtney Andrealis.
In the film, which may or may have dialogue, the Earth’s climate in the near future has become dangerously unstable. Scientists attempt to save the world from imminent destruction with an experiment that works temporarily. Earth is saved, but the world becomes an increasingly inhospitable place for humans after elements of the experiment backfire.
Franco, no stranger to experimental films, had already made the short with Arsham.
By admin • 0 comments • 29 | Every Thing Will Be Fine |
This long anticipated 3D redemption drama (and Wenders’ second use of the format after “Pina”) centers on a writer (Franco) who, after causing the accidental death of a child, spends the next 12 years examining the tragedy’s effect on his life and the life of the child’s mother.
As previously announced, Wenders will also be receiving an honorary Golden Bear at the festival, with 10 of his films screening as tribute, including 1984 Palme d’Or winner “Paris, Texas” and his latest documentary, the Oscar-nominated “The Salt of the Earth.”
The following films round out the Berlinale competition lineup including, notably, films from “No” director Pablo Larrain, Oliver Hirschbiegel, Andrew Haigh, Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog and, screening out-of-competition, Kenneth Branagh’s “Cinderella.”
By admin • 0 comments • 34 | Uncategorized |
James Franco has written a lengthy poetic essay about his love for Lana Del Rey and revealed that he wants to produce a film based on one of the singer’s ideas.
In the letter, published by V Magazine , The Interview actor Franco gushed that Del Rey “isn’t made for this Earth” and prompted speculation that the pair might work together in the future. “I wanted to interview Lana for a book and she said, ‘Just write around me, it’s better if it’s not my own words. It’s almost better if you don’t get me exactly, but try,'” Franco said.
He added: “She has this idea for a film. I want to do it because it’s a little like Sunset Boulevard. A woman is alone in a big house in LA. She doesn’t want to go out. She starts to go crazy, and becomes paranoid because she feels like people are watching her. Even in her own house. It’s like an awesome B-movie that lives in Lana’s head. It’s about her, and it’s not about her. Just like her music.”
Franco has expressed his adoration of Del Rey in the past. In December, the actor told Howard Stern that he wanted to “make love to her music”. “There’s a weird thing with creative types,” he said. “Sometimes I love a person’s work and, like, I’m just so enamoured with that and their persona in their work. But outside of that, it’s like, our dynamic is we’re just kind of friends, we get along so well. But all this sexual attraction is for the person and the work.”
Earlier this month, Del Rey revealed her third album will be called ‘Honeymoon’. It was reported that the singer has written nine tracks for the album already, which she says will be “very different” to last year’s ‘Ultraviolence’. It will also include a cover of the Nina Simone version of ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’. “I’m looking for a few more songs to tie everything together,” the singer explained.
By admin • 0 comments • 29 | Queen Of The Desert |
Earlier today, Werner Herzog fans got a dose of good news when it was revealed that his latest, “Queen Of The Desert,” will make its debut at the Berlin International Film Festival. And now, we’ve got the first image from the film.
Starring Nicole Kidman, James Franco, Robert Pattinson, Damian Lewis, and many more, the biopic tells the tale of Gertrude Bell, the traveler, writer, archaeologist, explorer, cartographer, and political attaché for the British Empire at the dawn of the 20th century who played a crucial role in the development of the Middle East. And Herzog has been making some big teases about the picture.
“Now, Nicole Kidman,” Herzog said last summer. “Wait for that one. Wait for it. I make an ominous prediction: How good she is.” We’ll soon find out.
No distribution yet for the movie, but if the film is even half as good as our expectations, it shouldn’t be too long.
By admin • 0 comments • 27 | Gallery Update" Movie caps |
I have add caps from Spider-Man to the gallery.
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