He's got plans to direct a couple of titans of American literature - namely William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian - but it seems that James Franco's next directorial effort will take him to the true crime section of the bookstore, with the news that he's set to adapt Philip Carlo's The Night Stalker, and also play its subject, serial killer Richard Ramirez.
Ramirez, currently awaiting execution in California, was responsible for a catalogue of appalling murders in the mid 1980s, and has been the subject of intense scrutiny for killer-philes ever since. A salacious version of his story was released only last year in the form of Ulli Lommel's Night Stalker, but screenwriter Nicolas Constantine promises the current version will not dwell on the gory details.
"This isn't a horror film," he explains. "Nor does it glorify Ramirez in any way. Philip Carlo painted an amazing portrait of Ramirez the human being, and how he became that monster. James Franco shares that vision, and we all agree that he's the one actor, and now director, who can do that vision justice. He read the material and responded to it immediately."
Constantine is co-producing with Chris Cornell (yes, the one from Soundgarden), and Franco will reportedly get to work in the summer, during a break from his studies at Yale. As you do.