Have you broken your New Year’s resolutions yet? You know, that one about staying away from the demon drink or where you swore to finally use that trampoline that’s mostly been relegated to acting as a coffee table? James Franco clearly resolved to be even busier in 2011 than he was in 2010, and he’s starting off by looking to snatch the rights to film William Faulkner’s **As I Lay Dying **and trying to land a gig directing Blood Meridian.
Showbiz 411 (via the venerable types at The Playlist) reports that Franco has been working with his manager for a while now to coax the Faulkner estate into granting him the option. And should he win them over, Fox Searchlight has committed to develop the project, which Franco wants to get up and running early next year.
Faulkner’s tome is not for the faint-hearted film-maker – a stream of consciousness-style story that features 15 different narrators across 59 chapters, it was originally published in 1930 and follows a family’s attempt to honour Addie Bundren’s wishes to buried in a specific town.
The Showbiz report also makes mention of Franco looking to tackle another literary heavyweight, with word that he and producer Scott Rudin are teaming up to secure the chance to adapt Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Despite Rudin seeming to deny that development, Franco emailed The Playlist to talk up the short film he made starring Lost's Mark Pelligrino, Scott Glenn and his brother Dave Franco among others.
"We made that as a way to convince Scott Rudin to give us the rights," Franco says. "It was like, 'why should he give it to me when Ridley Scott didn’t make it?' So I called him up and said, 'I’m planning on doing this. You don’t have to give me any money, I can finance this shoot. Would you just wait? Don’t do anything with it until I show this to you.' And I showed it to him and he loved it."
Good luck to him, as McCarthy’s book is no picnic in terms of complexity itself: a violent stew of scalp-hunting, complicated characters, religious references and corrupt behaviour across the American Southwest.
Before then, of course, he also has the Oscars to co-host with Anne Hathaway, university classes to attend, a slew of possible projects in development, other films to appear in and another stint on US soap General Hospital to complete. Oh, and he'll likely be hitting the press tours for comedy **Your Highness **and simian action drama Rise of the Apes. We’re knackered just contemplating his schedule.