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The 12th Annual Oxford Film Festival started out with a bang. Thursday night, hundreds of Oxonians gathered at the Oxford Studio Cinema because of a picture that was posted to Instagram hours before. James Franco surprised everyone with his selfie and the caption announcing that he was en route to Oxford for the premiere of his film The Sound and the Fury.<\/p>\n
Being such a Faulkner fanatic, it is a wonder that Franco has never been to Oxford before. But he certainly wanted to make up for his time lost while he was in town. After a visit to Faulkner\u2019s grave and a two hour tour of Rowan Oak, Franco was ready to unpack his bags and stay for the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter his tour, he tried in vain to wake up his personal assistant so that she could change his flight,\u201d The Sound and the Fury producer Lee Caplin said. \u201cIt was so late that no one in his circle was up and he ended up having to leave the next morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Franco\u2019s love for Faulkner goes back to his high school days. \u201cI was in high school when my dad gave me copies of As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury,\u201d said Franco. \u201cI was a reader before, but this was the first time I\u2019d ever read something that dense.\u201d Years later, while filming a movie in Prague, his knee was injured and he was bed-ridden for weeks. During this time, Franco read several Faulkner novels. That\u2019s when his infatuation with the writer began<\/p>\n
Franco and Caplin met for the first time about eight years ago to discuss Faulkner and the possibility of producing a movie together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat started out as a half hour lunch turned into a three hour meeting,\u201d Caplin said. \u201cI had it in mind that I wasn\u2019t going to do this with someone on a whim. I wanted to know that he was really serious about it. And he proved himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both As I Lay Dying and The Sound and the Fury have truly honored Faulkner and his novels. Though his work has been adapted to screen before, no on has truly captured what it is to read a Faulkner story.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil Franco, Hollywood has never dealt with the real Faulkner. There have been movies based on his work, but they were just Hollywood versions with fake southern accents,\u201d Caplin said.<\/p>\n
The two have made such a great team and they aren\u2019t stopping now. Faulkner\u2019s The Hamlet and The Bear are next on their agenda.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n