James Franco News

Rumors have been swirling around the Internet that Sam Raimi might back out of his attachment to the next Jack Ryan movie.

The Spider-Man director was reportedly hired to reboot this franchise, which is based on a series of best-selling Tom Clancy novels, but is yet to sign a deal with Paramount.

According to CHUD, he may now walk away entirely because the two sides cannot agree on an actor to portray the role once held by Sean Connery, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck.

Reportedly, Raimi wants James Franco, currently seen on-screen as Seth Rogen's buddy-pot dealer in Pineapple Express, to follow in the footsteps of the aforementioned actors.

But the studio reportedly prefers an actor with a more proven box office track record. We'll let you know which sides waivers first, but in the meantime let us know:

Could Franco pull off the role of Jack Ryan?

In a new interview with GQ, Pineapple Express star James Franco opens up about his past of bad movies - and his future of making out with Sean Penn.

On making a few bad films: “I wanted to be the best actor that I could be. It’s just sad for me, because I know I worked so hard, and I just feel like in some way I kind of blew it. It’s just hard to get away from what I see as the stain of these bad movies.”

On kissing costar Sean Penn in the movie Milk: “The first kiss of the movie was out on Haight Street, with, like, 200 people watching, outside. I’m sure in the end it will be a really cool shot, but it starts close and then it takes maybe a minute. That’s a long time on film with everybody watching, and, like, a fake moustache getting in your mouth. It was long enough that you couldn’t help but thinking, ‘Oh, my God, I’m kissing Spicoli.’”

According to James Franco, not only has a Pineapple Express sequel been discussed, but those behind the comedy have come up with a super idea for it.

A Superbad idea, that is!

“Even before Superbad came out, I think the studio was trying to get [Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg] to write a sequel, but they really didn’t want to write a sequel," Francol told MTV. "I guess the kids would go to college or something like that [that was the studio's idea]...

And so, an answer to that was to do a Superbad/Pineapple Express crossover, an unprecedented crossover movie with two directors, Greg Motolla and David Gordon Green, each directing half of the movie and somehow these characters get together, which doesn’t make sense at all, but could work.”

The Superbad boys get into enough trouble when drunk. Can you imagine them high?

How would the two worlds of sex-crazed teens and pot smoking be combined? Franco knows.

“I could sell them [the characters from Superbad] something, but I think we’d want some action, so you know, somehow the kids get in trouble somehow and we have to get them out of it. And Seth plays characters in both movies, so somehow we’d have to kill one of them off.”

Hey, as long as McLovin is there, we're there.

James Franco - who stars this weekend in Pineapple Express and later this year in the biopic Milk - recently sat down with USA Today.

As for the two movies come up, Milk producer Bruce Cohen said: "It couldn't be a better showcase for his talent to look at these two roles. They're both different sides of him...

He can bring the attributes of the young stoner guy he needs for Pineapple Express, but underneath that is the scholar and the deep thinker and the guy who wants to learn about art and is interested in politics. His performances are complex and layered."

Franco himself was asked about the role of Saul (pictured above) in Pineapple Express and deadpanned:

"I was always going to play Saul. They found me in my apartment, there was no script, they just came into my place. My dealer came after me. It was perfect."

In reality, Franco told the newspaper that he "used to smoke weed, but I haven't done it in a long time. Everybody, even now, thinks, 'That guy is stoned.' It's just the way I talk, because I don't smoke weed.

Somehow, there's something about me, the way I talk, that implies that I'm on drugs."

In spite of recently announcing he was going back to school, James Franco has joined the cast of Mark Ruffalo's directorial debut Sympathy for Delicious.

Franco, who will appear in the latest Judd Apatow flick, Pineapple Express, in theaters next week, told MTV News that “Mark Ruffalo is gonna direct his first movie and he wants me to play a singer in a rock band."

According to James, Delicious is a DJ and "This DJ character was written for [Mark's] friend who’s actually paraplegic in real life, Chris Thornton, and he’s this DJ that has kind of a gift. He joins up with my band and then starts getting more attention than me, the lead singer. So I start getting upset about that.”

Sounds interesting.  Ruffalo has been trying to get his movie made since he announced it in 2004 while doing press for 13 Going on 30 but with the announcement of Franco joining the project, it may be closer to reality.

Pineapple Express co-stars Seth Rogen and James Franco recently sat down with MoviesOnline to discuss their upcoming comedy. Here are a few highlights of the interview:

MoviesOnline: What was the idea behind writing this? Also, James, this isn't something we'd normally expect to see you do. How did this come to you and why did you say yes?
Rogen: The original idea came from Judd [Apatow] actually. He just kind of had the loose notion of like, 'What about a weed action movie?'

Me and Evan thought that could be rad and basically we started thinking about making a movie that was kind of a weed movie and action movie and had a real kind of friendship story to it then that would be our favorite movie ever. We originally actually wrote Franco's part for me and the part I ultimately played just for someone else in general and then when we got Franco involved we thought it was a good idea to switch the roles. I think it worked really well.

Franco: I hadn't done a comedy for a while. I had directed a very low budget movie called 'The Ape' and it was playing at a festival in Austin. Judd was there and he came and saw it and it's kind of funny.

Seth Rogen and James Franco in a scene from Pineapple Express.

Rogen: I think it's funny.

Franco: Thank you. After he saw it he said, 'I miss the funny Franco.' I hadn't really done a comedy other than 'The Ape' since 'Freaks and Geeks'. So then we started talking about ideas and he said, 'Well, I'm going to do this movie "Knocked Up" with Seth, but after that you guys should do a movie together.'

I read it and thought that it was very funny, but I said, 'Oh, Seth, you get to play the good role, or the role that I want – Saul.' They were like, 'Nah. You can play Saul.' I think around that time I met David, or well we all met at 'Superbad' and Judd said, 'I'm thinking about having him direct.' Sounded like a good idea.