Courtesy of backstage.com
As I’ve said before, I’m a big fan of James Franco. I think he’s one of the most post-modern artists out there, so whenever he signs on to something, there’s a reason for it.
Thankfully, this has led Franco into many different realms other than just acting — he’s writing, photographing, exhibiting art and, excitingly, directing. Franco recently directed The Broken Tower and Sal, both of which are heavy in the art house vein.
According to We Got This Covered, Franco (in an Q+A at the Toronto International Film Festival) has announced he will be adapting Cormac McCarthy’s Child of God. This is the quote:
“We shot a 20 minute test of it (Blood Meridian) that turned out pretty well… we were gearing up to do the feature but that for various reasons is on hold, but we are going to make a movie based on his (Cormac McCarthy’s) third book Child Of God.”
What he’s referring to in the beginning is his potential adaptation of McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, which will be produced by Scott Rudin, who I believe owns the rights to the novel.
So it sounds like good news that Franco is signing on to do another McCarthy novel, except for the fact that this sounds like one of the most disturbing pieces of literature the author ever penned.
As slashfilm points out, the Wikipedia summarizes as such:
Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as “a child of God much like yourself perhaps.” Ballard’s life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation.
They also point out this other Wikipedia quote:
“[o]ne of the novel’s main themes is sexual deviancy, specifically necrophilia and pedophilia.”
So yeah, I’m not sure if this will be on my must-see list.
