Friday, June 5, 2026

James Franco Will Try for a Comeback After Sex Scandals, $2.2 Mil Settlement, in Movie with Tommy Lee Jones

Share

James Franco wants to come back. Will he be uncancelled?

Franco is set to star with Oscar winner Tommy Lee Jones in a movie called “The Razor’s Edge.” This is not connected to the famous W. Somerset Maugham novel of that name which has been made into a movie twice.

Producers Red Sea Media are taking this dull blade to the Cannes market where they hope they can scare up business. They are counting on foreign money not knowing that Franco, in 2022, came to a $2.2 million settlement with students who claimed he abused his power as an acting teacher by coercing several women into unwanted sexual encounters while he was an acting teacher in Los Angeles.

There was more that expedited Franco’s expulsion from Hollywood including accusations from Ally Sheedy (he directed her in an off Broadway play). Franco also admitted to texting and trying to meet up with an underage girl. He was clever: he did all of this while making movie after movie with gay themes, making the actresses think he wasn’t interested in them. It was quite the contrary.

“The Razor’s Edge” will be directed by Demian Lichtenstein (“3000 Miles to Graceland”) from a screenplay co-written by Lichtenstein and Vance Duplechin. What’s the plot?  “After a mob hitman vows to leave his deadly past behind, he faces an impossible choice when his daughter is kidnapped and the woman he loves becomes a target of the syndicate.   He is forced to undertake one final, perilous mission while being pursued by an assassin even more lethal.

Who will be the American distributor of this B movie? This has Vertical Entertainment written all over it. Can Franco come back? Or will he wind up in Mel Gibson hell? The latter is likely. He has one other movie in the can, in which he plays Fidel Castro. But his previous victims will probably not remain silent. They’re just waiting for the right time.

Donate to Showbiz411.com

Showbiz411 is now in its 13th year of providing breaking and exclusive entertainment news. This is an independent site, unlike the many Hollywood trades that are owned by one company. To continue providing news that takes a fresh look at what's going on in movies, music, theater, etc, advertising is our basis. Reader donations would be greatly appreciated, too. They are just another facet of keeping fact based journalism alive.
Thank you


Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

Read more

In Other News