James Franco opens up about his new film, Child of God, and its challenging necrophilia content at the Toronto Film Festival.
Franco directs in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 1973 novel. The film follows Lester Ballard in his attempt to live outside social norms. Lester, played by Scott Haze, becomes a cave dweller and spirals into madness, eventually becoming a murder and necrophiliac.
The film has premiered at the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals to mixed reviews, but Franco wants to assure audiences that the film’s controversial content isn’t purely for shock value.
"I don't get turned on if somebody hates my movie, but I did go into this project knowing that it was an extreme subject matter," Franco said in an interview with MTV News. Franco went on to say that he approached the film’s challenging content as a way to examine loneliness and imagination in an extreme way. He acknowledges that he could discuss these themes in a more tame way, but that wouldn’t be as interesting to him.
In the film, Lester goes on a “date” with a dead body and uses his imagination to act out both sides of the interaction. “To me that’s fascinating, and it’s a way to do what movies should do – talk about the human condition,” Franco told The Daily Beast in an interview.
Audiences can form their own opinion of Franco’s film when Child of God comes to theaters Sept. 29th.
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