James Franco May Join Kate Hudson In Linda Lovelace Biopic

He’s just received an Oscar nod for playing an intrepid wilderness lover in 127 Hours, and now James Franco could be playing another real-life character on the big screen – infamous “adult entertainment” filmmaker Chuck Traynor in Lovelace, an adaptation of the novel titled The Complete Linda Lovelace.

Franco’s Howl directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman already have Kate Hudson onboard to star in Lovelace as Traynor’s wife, Linda Boreman – a woman whose life was inalterably changed after she appeared in her husband’s 1972 X-Rated blockbuster, Deep Throat.

Deadline says that Epstein and Friedman have been attempting to get their Linda Lovelace pic off the ground since Howl – which starred Franco as beat poet Allen Ginsberg – premiered at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. It will be difficult for the filmmakers to reunite with the increasingly-busy Franco, who is starring in this summer’s Rise of the Apes; will join Nicole Kidman in the Broadway production Sweet Bird this fall; and aspires to helm adaptations of two literary masterpieces sometime in the near future as well.

Lovelace isn’t the only biopic in the works about the titular actress, who essentially suffered a public meltdown in the wake of the controversy about her appearance in Deep Throat – which eventually led her to divorce Traynor and accuse him of coercing her into committing acts of prostitution onscreen. Malin Akerman (a.k.a. Silk Spectre II in Watchmen) will offer her own version of Lovelace in the Black Listed Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story from writer/director Matthew Wilder.

Actress Linda Lovelace.

Epstein and Friedman are no strangers to tackling taboo or controversial material, having addressed the subject of Hollywood’s historical portrayal of homosexuality in the acclaimed documentary The Celluloid Closet and examined the life of San Francisco’s first openly gay elected official in their Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk. The life of Miss Lovelace is a horse of a different color, though, one riddled with scandals and of course the adult entertainment industry. Still, hers was a fascinating existence that could make for quite the engaging cinematic biopic, regardless of who stars in it.

Neither Inferno nor Lovelace have managed to secure proper funding or studio backing at this point, which means that it could be a while before filming on either dramatization gets underway. It’s entirely possible that by the time Epstein and Friedman are ready to roll with their project, Franco’s schedule might not be quite so full.

We’ll keep you updated on the development of Lovelace as more information is released.

Source: Deadline

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James Franco Eying ‘As I Lay Dying’ & ‘Blood Meridian’ Adaptations?

Not satisfied with co-hosting the 2011 Oscars and starring in one of our favorite movies of 2010 (the highest honor a film can receive, of course), James Franco is reportedly interested in bringing not one but two American literary masterpieces to the big screen: William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.

Early word from Showbiz 411 is that Franco could feasibly begin shooting As I Lay Dying as early as this upcoming spring and then would get the cameras rolling on Blood Meridian sometime in 2012.

Realizing Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying as a film is an intimidating prospect for Franco – or any director, really. The plot of the novel is structured in a stream of consciousness style and features no less than fifteen different narrators, all telling the tale of the Bundren family’s journey to bury their beloved mother in the town of her preference. Those multiple points of view and inner monologues are highly crucial to the structure of the story and the manner in which it unfolds.

Franco and his manager are reportedly in talks with the Faulkner estate for the rights to As I Lay Dying and have already contacted Fox Searchlight about financing the project. Whether or not Showbiz 411‘s claim that Franco himself says “this is the [project] he’s most attached to” is true, there’s little reason to doubt that what is considered one of the greatest novels written in the 20th century won’t eventually become a (hopefully) worthwhile motion picture as well.

The Playlist contacted No Country For Old Men producer Scott Rudin, who Franco has reportedly enlisted to help bring another violent McCarthy western (Blood Meridian) to theaters. Rudin heavily downplayed the story from Showbiz 411, but refrained from flat out denying the report – which could mean that it’s essentially a fabrication or largely exaggerates the progress that either he and/or Franco has made in terms of making the project a reality.

Fully titled Blood Meridian (or The Evening Redness in the West), McCarthy’s novel is set around the mid-19th century and revolves around “the kid”, a nameless young man speculated to be the famed U.S. soldier Samuel Chamberlain, whose time spent with the Glanton gang – an infamous pack of Native American killers and scalp collectors – makes up the bulk of the narrative.

Three of McCarthy’s novels – All the Pretty Horses, No Country For Old Men, and his Pulitzer Prize-winner, The Road – have already made the transition to film. A handful of acclaimed auteurs (including Ridley Scott and John Hillcoat, who directed the Road adaptation) have expressed interest in Blood Meridian before, but Franco may end up being the surprise candidate to secure the job. With the Coen Brothers’ True Grit having arguably resuscitated interest in the western genre, Blood Meridian‘s prospects of being made look all the better – even if the Franco story turns out to be a false trail (pun intended).

Either As I Lay Dying or Blood Meridian would mark Franco’s first time helming a major studio production, but not the actor’s directorial debut in general. The former Spider-Man franchise star recently finished directing an indie film about the poet Hart Crane, titled The Broken Tower, and was the main artistic force behind a handful of small shorts, as well as the Saturday Night Live making-of documentary, Saturday Night. So he may be up to the challenge after all.

Do you like the idea of Franco adapting either As I Lay Dying or Blood Meridian?

Source: Showbiz 411, The Playlist

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James Franco & Anne Hathaway Hosting The 2011 Oscars

No over-40 comedian will get to monologue about Meryl Streep’s gazillion award nominations or George Clooney’s quest to win a naked golden man statuette for Best Acting at the 2011 Oscars ceremony. This year the hosting duties fall on two younger thespians whose standing with critics is on the rise.

Actor James Franco and actress Anne Hathaway have been officially confirmed to host the 83rd Annual Academy-Awards ceremony, which will take place on the evening of February 27th, 2011.

Comedians like Billy Crystal, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, and Jon Stewart have hosted Oscar ceremonies in the past, and last year Martin teamed up with Alec Baldwin for the famed awards show, which has seen its ratings dwindle over the last decade or so. Academy president Tom Sherak – who confirmed the news about Franco and Hathaway leading this year’s Oscars ceremony to Deadline – is employing a different tactic this time around.

Franco is virtually a lock to receive a Best Actor nod for his turn as Aron Ralston in the intense, true-life pic 127 Hours (and rightly so, in our opinion). The 32-year old actor is a versatile performer who also appeared onscreen in this year’s Date Night and the semi-experimental indie flick Howl, so he’s done all right by himself over the past twelve months.

James Franco as Aron Ralston in '127 Hours'.

Hathaway has likewise become a more widely-respected Hollywood performer over the past several years. Gone are the days when her name was synonymous with kid-friendly fare like The Princess Diaries and Ella Enchanted. Now, the 28 year-old Hathaway has an Oscar-nomination on her resume (for her turn as a bitter, recovering drug addict in Rachel Getting Married), which also includes a supporting part in the Oscar-winner Brokeback Mountain and a well-received lead role in the more mainstream commercial hit, The Devil Wears Prada (we’ll pretend that Bride Wars never happened).

While Hathaway’s performance in last week’s release, the dramedy Love and Other Drugs, has been given a generally warm reception from critics, the actress is (for now) considered much more of a dark horse candidate to receive an Oscar nomination than Franco.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars opposite Hathaway in 'Love and Other Drugs'.

Both Franco and Hathaway are charismatic entertainers who are capable of deftly handling hosting duties at this year’s Oscar ceremony. Their selection does beg the question: Will the duo be able to keep their composure and keep the show rolling if one (or both) of them wins an award?

What do you make of all this?

Catch the 2011 Oscars on February 27, 2011.

Source: Deadline

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