Just to make sure we’re all still paying attention, James Franco is at it again, adding another film to his already bulging schedule. He’s signed on to appear in indie drama Cherry alongside Dev Patel and Heather Graham.
Author Stephen Elliott – who already has a link to Franco, since the actor optioned his memoir The Adderall Diaries as a likely directing/starring project last year – is stepping up to call the shots from the script he co-write with Lorelei Lee (not the Marilyn Monroe character).
The story follows an 18-year-old girl who moves to San Francisco and enters the adult film industry. She also becomes involved with a cocaine-snorting lawyer (Franco).
Graham, meanwhile, is aboard as a former porn starlet (at least she’ll have done all the research already for Boogie Nights) who has switched to work as a director and becomes obsessed with the new actress. Patel will be the girl’s best friend, who also happens to be in love with her. Oh, and Lili Taylor is in negotiations to play the teenager’s alcoholic mother.
It appears that Franco will fit this into his diary before Sam Raimi kicks off shooting on Oz, The Great and Powerful, since Cherry starts filming next month in San Francisco.