With The Disaster Artist making the rounds and garnering plenty of critical acclaim, things are going pretty well for both James Franco the actor and James Franco the director. He’s set to combine those two talents once more, as he will direct and star in the Shel Silverstein biopic, A Boy Named Shel.
Franco will play the lead role of the author behind such childhood classics as Where The Sidewalk Ends, The Giving Tree and A Light In The Attic. Silverstein had a colourful life which should make a good biopic, as he also penned hit songs “A Boy Named Sue” and “The Unicorn”, drew cartoons for Playboy and collaborated on scripts with David Mamet.
The movie will be adapted from Lisa Rogak‘s biography of the same name by Chris Shafer and Paul Vicknair (Before We Go). Franco has excelled at playing colourful characters, as evidenced by both his latest film and his most recent TV role, his double-role on the acclaimed HBO show, The Deuce, so this seems like a spot of perfect casting.
When the film will arrive is another matter though, as Franco has a Marvel movie lined up (Multiple Man), the Coen Brothers‘ anthology mini-series The Ballad Of Buster Scruggs, and two more of his own projects too (Zeroville, The Long Home). So we could be looking at a 2019 or even 2020 release date.
#Peace.Love.ABoyNamedShel
