{"id":40544,"date":"2015-02-01T16:30:15","date_gmt":"2015-02-01T08:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=40544"},"modified":"2015-02-01T13:13:20","modified_gmt":"2015-02-01T05:13:20","slug":"james-franco-tries-to-move-beyond-the-interview-at-sundance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/02\/01\/james-franco-tries-to-move-beyond-the-interview-at-sundance\/","title":{"rendered":"James Franco tries to move beyond \u201cThe Interview\u201d at Sundance"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"James<\/a>
James Franco. Bridget Laudien \/ Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PARK CITY, Utah\u2014Almost two months after the hack heard \u2018round the world, James Franco is trying and ready to move past \u201cThe Interview.\u201d<\/p>\n

The restless, multi-hyphenate artist has made a noble attempt to refocus his attentions. Franco has three movies playing in Park City this week\u2014two at the Sundance Film Festival and one at Slamdance, the even indie-er festival just up the street\u2014but the dramatic circumstances surrounding \u201cThe Interview\u201d remained the only thing that people wanted to talk about even if he insists that \u201cit\u2019s kind of over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sundance might seem worlds away from the Sony hack and Hollywood intrigue, but \u201cThe Interview\u201d loomed large throughout the week and Franco\u2019s team was keenly aware. On the red carpet for the \u201cTrue Story\u201d premiere on Saturday, reporters were even told that the actor would be pulled away if questions went \u201coff topic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of attention put on it,\u201d Franco said of the hack-addled film following the first showing of \u201cYosemite\u201d at Slamdance, Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really out of my hands. There was nothing for me to do. I wasn\u2019t making any decisions. Sony was making the decisions so I was just kind of sitting around and hoping the movie got out in some way or another,\u201d he said, when asked what the experience was like.<\/p>\n

The FBI in early January revealed further clues tying the devastating cyberattack on Sony to North Korea. Thousands of sensitive emails and employee social security numbers were released in the hack.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Interview,\u201d which depicts an assassination attempt against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was caught in the crossfires when hackers threatened violence against moviegoers on the eve of its Christmas release.<\/p>\n

Although Franco admits that he was disappointed when the major theatre chains decided to drop the film following the threats, ultimately he was at peace with how it was handled. Sony, after cancelling the release, managed to still debut the film on various video-on-demand platforms and in over 300 independent theatres on its originally scheduled date.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many things happened that were new and unexpected and that had never happened before that, you know? For people from Sony to the press to theatre chains to the government, it was all new. I think everybody responded as well as they could,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s even a silver lining.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Interview\u201d debacle only strengthened his friendship with his director, co-star and longtime collaborator Seth Rogen. The two are currently working on an adaptation of the making-of \u201cThe Room\u201d book \u201cThe Disaster Artist,\u201d which will put Franco in the director\u2019s seat with Rogen producing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt one point he texted me and said \u2018I\u2019m glad it\u2019s you I\u2019m going through this with,\u201d\u2018 Franco said, with a big smile.<\/p>\n

But at Sundance, the actor focused on the surroundings and his three projects. It isn\u2019t even a record for the prolific Franco, a regular at the fest. At a Q&A Thursday he said that it could have been more\u2014he was in 7 or 8 projects angling for a Sundance slot.<\/p>\n

The ones that made the cut are as diverse as Franco\u2019s career, with two fact-based, but wildly different dramas about slippery identities, \u201cTrue Story\u201d and \u201cI am Michael,\u201d and one, \u201cYosemite,\u201d that\u2019s based on his short stories and at least partially informed by his own Palo Alto childhood. All three projects are from first time feature directors, too.<\/p>\n

In \u201cI Am Michael,\u201d which premiered Thursday night at Sundance, Franco portrays former gay activist Michael Glatze who renounced his homosexuality and turned to God.<\/p>\n

Franco said he likes that the story explores questions of identity and sexuality. \u201cIs it nurture or nature and do we allow someone to make these decisions?\u201d he said. \u201cI think this movie touches on those issues in a really interesting way where it allows people to talk about it and it fosters discussion in a very healthy way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTrue Story,\u201d meanwhile, finds Franco playing Christian Longo, a convicted murderer and one of the FBI\u2019s most-wanted, who develops a strange friendship with disgraced journalist Michael Finkel, played by Franco\u2019s \u201cThis is the End\u201d co-star Jonah Hill.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn this dark, dark tale where the world has cast off both of these guys and they find themselves in this weird confessional bubble…you need a little bit of energy coming in to overcome some of the barriers of engaging with these characters because of the circumstances…I think Jonah and my relationship helps people engage just because they knew us from funnier movies and there was a little residue of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Finally, \u201cYosemitie,\u201d the Slamdance film, has Franco\u2019s hands all over it\u2014he wrote the stories that inspired the film and produced the final feature (for which he hand selected Gabrielle Demeestere to direct)\u2014while also having the distinction of being his smallest role of all the films playing in Park City.<\/p>\n

In one of three vignettes, Franco plays a father to two young boys, wandering around the National Park, which his father did for him and his brother years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to every spot that my father had taken me,\u201d Franco said. \u201cNow I was seeing it through my dad\u2019s eyes. It was strange.\u201d<\/p>\n

With premieres almost a week apart, Franco said everyone thought he should just fly home and come back. Instead, he chose to stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt became a thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI was like, \u2018no I want to see movies.\u2019 Then I realized after a while there was nothing here I wanted to do other than see movies. So we just took on the idea of movie marathon and saw 6 movies a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, it\u2019s almost been impossible not to run into Franco about town or at screening. From \u201cThe Witch,\u201d to \u201cKurt Cobain: Montage of Heck,\u201d where he was bobbing his head to the Nirvana songs throughout, as of Thursday night, he\u2019d seen a grand total of 32 films, including two of his own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a youthful energy here,\u201d said Franco. \u201cI love being here.\u201d<\/p>\n

He even agrees to photos with fans occasionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cFast…,\u201d he said to one eager young girl, as he continued to walk, leaving her no choice but to chase after him to get that coveted selfie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PARK CITY, Utah\u2014Almost two months after the hack heard \u2018round the world, James Franco is trying and ready to move …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":40545,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hollywood","mauthors-lindsey-bahr","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}