Nary a moment is wasted in James Franco's world. Even with tons of projects in the works, The Interview star is hard at work making his next directorial effort. That said project is an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel In Dubious Battle, and the A-list star scored an impressive cast for the new movie.
The Hollywood Reporter notes Franco got Selena Gomez, Vincent D'Onofrio, Robert Duvall, Ed Harris, Bryan Cranston and Danny McBride to join his ensemble piece. At the moment, there's no talk of Franco starring in the movie, so his responsibilities this time will lie solely behind the camera.
Filming begin this March. In Dubious Battle, yet another literary adaptation from the actor, is the story of a man who tries organizing a fruit pickers strike in Southern California. It was first published in 1936. Penning the screenplay is Matt Rager, who also wrote Franco's film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's Child of God, which, for the record, was pretty terrible.
This is not the first time the actor works with Steinbeck, as he recently starred in the Broadway revival of Of Mice and Men where he played George. In Dubious Battle is financed by AMBI Group with Rabbit Bandini Productions and That's Hollywood Pictures producing the movie.
Franco, meanwhile, hosts a variety of projects in his wheelhouse. Currently he has Zeroville and the documentary Metamorphis: Junior Year in post-production. Both will hit at least the film festival circuit sometime this year. He also made Bukowski but that movie, last we heard, was in legal trouble. He also recently bought the film rights to Chuck Palahniuk's Rant, which he likely will produce and possibly direct in the near future.
Image courtesy of INFphoto.com