James Franco has embarked on yet another creative journey in film and it seems like his plate is just not full enough. He’s just signed on for Waterstone Entertainment’s debut indie film, The Stare.
Deadline reports that he will be joining Winona Ryder (Black Swan), who plays “a playwright [who] finds her mind beginning to warp as she struggles to launch her next production. She’s plagued by dreams and visions of being watched, but can’t decide if she’s at the center of a manipulative plot or simply losing her grip on reality.” In addition, “Franco plays one of the performers in the playwright’s production.”
Set to begin shooting May 6th in New York, “Franco is producing,” and has “previously starred in ‘Shadows and Lies’ for the film’s writer-director [Jay] Anania, a teacher of Franco’s who heads the directing program at the graduate film school at NYU.”
Movieline points out that the film sounds a lot like Ryder’s previous supporting effort in Black Swan, but just for the heck of it, let’s repeat their speculation, “No word yet on how staring will come into play, but for fun’s sake let us hope that a staring contest happens at some point. In which case, our money’s on Ryder’s doe-eyed gaze to outlast Franco’s stoner squint.” Also Total Film draws The Stare‘s comparison to Black Swan “which also focused on the psychological strain of performance and multiple levels of reality.”
IMDB has yet to post anything about the film in connection to the two Oscar nominees, but we do already know that Franco has wrapped on The Broken Tower as director, Maladies with Catherine Keener and Fallon Goodson, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes with Freida Pinto. Up next, he’s attached to the crime thriller The Iceman and the highly-anticipated Wizard of Oz prequel, Oz: The Great & Powerful. And somewhere along the way, Franco is developing William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying as director, screenwriter, and possibly star. However, Ryder has lent her voice to Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie, to add to her slow-moving comeback to Hollywood.
There are no other details behind this production at the moment, but Movie Buzzers will continue following the story. What do you think about this project? Do you think Ryder is making a good comeback? What about Franco? Is he spreading himself too thin across the movie industry?
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