Love him or hate him, you have got to respect James Franco and his unwavering and varied work ethic. Nothing slows the guy down. Many would say that makes his a jack of all trades and master of none, but I applaud him for trying everything.
Speaking of trying everything, Mr. Franco’s next project is one that is quite different from any previous roles he has tried. Sure, he has starred in MILK and HOWL which both deal with true stories about famous homosexuals, but this will be his first foray into a subject not often tackled in mainstream cinema.
Along with gay art-porn director Travis Mathews, Franco filmed JAMES FRANCO’S CRUISING which is inspired by William Friedkin’s CRUISING. The original film starred Al Pacino as a police detective who goes undercover in the gay S&M sex scene to investigate the serial murders of gay men within the subculture.
When Franco could not remake the original, he worked with Mathews to remake it. The resulting project took 2 days to film and 2 months to edit. According to IndieWire, Mathews plays himself and directs, and Franco, who also plays himself and produces, decided to document the recreation of the 40 minutes that were lost from the film after an intense battle with the MPAA to change its rating from X to R.
An interesting approach to such a controversial topic for many, JAMES FRANCO’S CRUISING will never hit your local AMC theater due to the fact that Mathews and Franco have included “real gay sex” in the movie. To what extent that sex will be in the final cut of the film remains to be seen. One can assume that for every OZ: THE GREAT AND POWERFUL that he makes, Franco will follow it up with something completely opposite. For now, you can expect JAMES FRANCO’S CRUISING to screen at some point in 2013.
