Walk out: James Franco leaves film he planned to direct and star in, two weeks before production. Photo: Getty Images
James Franco – Hollywood's busiest multi-hyphenate – may just have cleared some space in his diary if reports that he has walked away from his next directorial project are true.
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Deadline reported on Thursday (US time) that the actor-screenwriter-author-producer-director-painter-academic-PhD candidate has pulled out of Garden of Last Days just two weeks before filming was due to commence.
Based on a 2008 novel by Andre Dubus III, Garden of Last Days follows three interlocking stories over the course of a single night in a Florida strip club. The $3 million film was to be shot on location in North Carolina starting next month.
An open casting call for extras was due to be held on Sunday. ''They are looking for all ages and types, including a broad range of 'ethnically distinct individuals and Arabic-speaking individuals','' a casting notice posted online on Thursday claimed. ''They are also looking for professional female dancers to play strippers, a young girl or identical twins to play 3-4-year-olds, and a young boy to play 2-3 years old.''
Well, not any more.
According to Deadline, Franco walked over a dispute with the film's producers about crew. ''Basically, Franco put together a few that didn't have the experience to get approval from the bond company.'' No insurance, no shoot.
With $500,000 reportedly spent already, the producers might try to salvage the production with a new director at the helm. But with Franco also slated to star in the film, that won't be easy.
Fans of Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen) will be disappointed too. She was set to play April, a stripper who brings her three-year-old daughter to work in the club.
Those enamoured of Franco, however, need not fret. The star of Oz the Great and Powerful will next be seen in the Seth Rogen comedy This Is The End, playing an exaggerated and comically ridiculous version of himself. It opens in Australia next week.
His latest outing as director, an adaptation of William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying, recently screened in Cannes, and an adaptation of his book Palo Alto – into three feature films to be made by young up-and-coming directors – has raised a little more than one-quarter of its $500,000 target on crowdfunding site indiegogo ahead of a slated August start.
kquinn@fairfaxmedia.com.au
twitter: @karlkwin
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