So James Franco makes a couple of serious pictures and now he’s suddenly ready to write and direct Cormac McCarthy’s bleak masterpiece BLOOD MERIDIAN? Um, okay…
But that’s exactly what’s being reported out of Showbiz 411. Franco, who’s doing the Oscar rounds (both as a nominee and co-host) for his work in 127 HOURS, is now said to be taming with Scott Rudin – one of the best producers in this town – to bring McCarthy’s ultra-violent western to the big screen in 2012. Now, it should be known many people have tried to tackle this epic tome, a work many people believe to be unfilmable. At last glance, Todd Field (LITTLE CHILDREN) was attached to adapt the novel, but he’s currently filming a crime-thriller called CREED OF VIOLENCE, so he’s apparently out of the running.
In case you’re unfamiliar, here’s what the project is all about:
By the author of the critically acclaimed Border Trilogy, BLOOD MERIDIAN is an epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America’s westward expansion, brilliantly subverting of the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the “Wild Wild West.” Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of The Kid, a 14-year old Tennessean who stumbles into a nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.
F*ckin rad, right? Believe me, I’ve read it…it’s one of the toughest, tersest, most rewarding books I’ve ever had the good pleasure of picking up. Which is why Franco directing worries the hell out of me. Sure he’s acted with some heavyweights, and been around good filmmakers, hell…he’s even directed before. But somehow, I think BLOOD MERIDIAN is a tougher task than FOOL’S GOLD and APE. Besides, the Coens did the best possible Cormac adaptation you can in NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN…why even f*ck around?
Know what I’m saying?
Franco’s YOUR HIGHNESS co-star, Zooey Deschanel!