American Tabloid Film in the works to be directed by James Franco?

Shardlake

As someone who is a long time fan of James Elroy and particularly is a fan of his Underworld Trilogy, American Tabloid, The Cold Six Thousand & Blood Is A Rover. While I'll say that the best way to do this is as an HBO TV series and tackle the whole thing, the idea of this making it to the screen is still enticing.

Apparently a number of times this has stalled with both Bruce Willis and Tom Hanks at separate times having attempted to make it as a series.

The latest attempt is apparently James Franco not to appear in it but direct it and a feature film? As someone who isn't aware of any of his directorial efforts I still think a project of this monumental size is a big ask for someone early in his career behind the camera, Fincher or even Affleck but Franco?

I'm not going to outright dismiss this as Franco may well have inner Orson Welles waiting to get out and Curtis Hanson never struck me as a director to bring L.A Confidential to the screen so brilliantly based on his previous track record. Although forgive me for some caution not just Franco's inexperience but also anyone who thought Hanson and Brian Helgeland had a job condensing LA, is going to be nothing making Tabloid fit the confines of a feature film, even an epic length film as this would need to be 3 hours at the least to even tackle the intricate inter weaved strands of the plot.

I'm intrigued to which way this will go but Franco might want to think of going down the TV route and what makes him think he can get it made when Hollywood heavy hitters like Willis and Hanks can't get it off the ground, this really could be another Game of Thrones for HBO if they played their cards right.


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http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=36260