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.

“Downton Abbey 3” has begun production in England.

This is the first “DA” without Maggie Smith as the Dowager Countess. Her absence may be noticeable, but Imelda Staunton has slowly moved in to succeed her in scenes with Penelope Wilton.

“DA 3” may bring the end to a series and two movies that began a hundred years ago.

The great Simon Curtis is returning to direct, as he did chapter 2. He’s already a member of the “Downton” family, married to Elizabeth McGovern (Lady Cora Grantham, aka Crawley).

For this round, Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti will return as Cora’s brother from the States. If you remember, it’s their family that has the money. (Their mother was played by Shirley MacLaine.)

Everyone from the cast is returning, plus they’ve added Joely Richardson, Alessandro Nivola, Simon Russell Beale, and Arty Froushan.

But there’s no mention of Matthew Goode as Mary’s race car driver husband. Something is wrong with Goode’s relationship to this company. He appears for a few minutes or less in each film.

It’s still 1925 in “Downton Abbey” unless creator Julian Fellowes moves it ahead a bit. The cut off should be 1929, when the world economy crashes, and the Downton gang would be in peril financially. No one wants to see that.