I can’t even figure out how many unreleased films James Franco has directed and are waiting for some kind of release. A dozen? More, actually.
Two of them are finally appearing in September and October. First up is “Zeroville,” which features Franco with a lot of pals like Seth Rogen and Danny McBride, plus Joey King and Megan Fox. “Zeroville” has been ready for a while but no one wanted it. Now a small distributor called MyCinema will release it with about a dozen or more producers attached.
Second to come, on October 4th, is something called “The Pretenders.” It’s from the tiny B movie distributor Cleopatra Films and will go straight to video with a limited theater presence. This one features Franco with Jack Kilmer (noted as Val Kilmer’s son in press materials), Jane Levy, Shameik Moore, Juno Temple, Brian Cox, and Dennis Quaid. “The Pretenders” also has about 20 or producer credits.
Franco was on a roll with an Oscar nomination for “127 Hours,” but then determined to become an indie director. He’s made a lot — a lot — of films, none of them profitable and nearly all not well reviewed. The best of the bunch, “The Disaster Artist,” earned an Oscar nomination for Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film made a notable $21 million but then Franco was swept into the #MeToo scandals and the whole thing fell apart.
Apart from “Disaster Artist,” the four films credited to Franco as a director on boxofficemojo.com have made a total of $100,000. “Zeroville” and “The Pretenders” will aim to add to that number.
