Disney starlets join James Franco for new Harmony Korine film

Selena Gomez is best known for her squeaky clean Disney-fied image and lately as the arm candy for another teen idol Justin Bieber. Vanessa Hudgens cut her teeth as the star of HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody” and other Disney TV shows. But both actors are leaving all that behind to team with the man who made gas huffing, cat drownings and humping trash cans part of his oeuvre, Harmony Korine.

Gomez and Hudgens have somewhat inexplicably agreed to star in SPRING BREAKERS, Korine’s latest project, which has James Franco set to star in a supporting role. Gomez, Hudgens and Emma Roberts would star as a group of girls who take to a spree of robberies to fund a trip to Florida for spring break. Things go wrong when they’re locked up in jail and the drug dealer who bails them out (Franco) forces them to kill an arch-rival as payback.

So why exactly would the three actresses who have a healthy teen fanbase work with Korine? That’s a good question. Frankly I’m embarrassed that any of them had to watch one of his previous movies (or maybe they haven’t and that explains the pairing). I’m guessing Franco, who’s own avant-garde art obsessions seem right up Korine’s alley, was enough to convince them.

To say I’m not a particular fan of Korine’s work is to put it lightly. GUMMO is, perhaps, one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen, rivaled closely by JULIEN DONKEY-BOY. His last attempt at making a narrative movie with a respectable budget was MISTER LONELY, an experience so unpleasant for the director, he made TRASH HUMPERS, perhaps his magnum opus of horrible.

But OK – good for these girls for trying something new. MONTE CARLO and SUCKER PUNCH and SCREAM 4 certainly didn’t light the world ablaze so why not spread your wings. It worked for Anne Hathaway, who appeared nude in HAVOC, a mostly forgettable film whose only purpose was to remind audiences she wasn’t just a Disney princess.