Guy Pearce Joins 'Equals'; Marion Cotillard in 'Mal des Pierres'; 'The Disaster Artist' Enlists Dave Franco

* The last time Guy Pearce worked with director Drake Doremus, it was the in the adultery drama Breathe In, a film that deserved better treatment than it received. Hopefully their next pairing will work out better as Pearce has joined Nicholas Hoult and Kristen Stewart in Equals, which Doremus will direct from a Nathan Parker (Moon) script that will tell a future love story set in a time when emotions have been eradicated. Pearce will be seen next in David Michod's The Rover opposite Robert Pattinson. [TheWrap]



* A busy year for Marion Cotillard continues with the Oscar-winning actress joining Mal des Pierres, the next film by director and co-writer Nicole Garcia. The story "spans 20 years, following the destiny of a passionate, free-spirited woman who is in a loveless marriage and falls for another man." Filming begins next spring so we won't see this anytime soon. Cotillard can be seen now in James Gray's The Immigrant, and was showered with praise at Cannes for her performance in the Dardenne's Two Days, One Night.



* James Franco has recruited his brother Dave (seen in this weekend's 22 Jump Street) for his adaptation of The Disaster Artist, a book which takes an inside look at the making of cult film, The Room. James Franco will direct and play The Room's eccentric creator, Tommy Wiseau, with Dave Franco as actor Greg Sestero. [Variety]

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James Franco Might Play Tommy Wiseau in Movie About Cult Hit 'The Room'

James Franco and weird career choices have become sort of a thing, and a few months ago he became attached to direct an adaptation of Greg Sestero's book, The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside the Room, about his part in the making of the inexplicable cult favorite, The Room. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg would be producing, but Franco may have larger ambitions that will put him in front of the camera and in the role of The Room's...ummmmmm "unique" creator, Tommy Wiseau.

Rogen appeared on The Opie  & Anthony Show (ugggghh) and spoke a little bit about the project, saying that Franco "might play Tommy Wiseau". Franco reviewed The Disaster Artist for VICE and compared Wisseau's film to the work of P.T. Anderson, so he's obviously a huge a fan. But he also said Wisseau resembles a character from Bram Stoker's Dracula, with Rogen also making the vampire connection. 

If you've seen Wiseau in person he's a total misfit, but one with a strangely charismatic personality. Some of that is probably what bleeds into The Room because on the surface it just looks like another low-rent flick. Rogen says the plan is to go into some of the darker corners of Wiseau's personality, while exploring what keeps audiences packing midnight showings more than a decade after it opened.

Rogen: “What’s interesting is he’s had to restructure his thoughts on it to some degree. Because he wants the acclaim and attention but all that’s associated with somewhat acknowledging that it sucks sh*t. So I think he’s kind of in a weird position where he goes to the Q&A’s and introduces the screenings and I think now he kind of pretends, ‘oh, it’s a dark comedy’ or something like that. But it’s so clear that he’s wounded and torn. Which is interesting also — a guy who has to go around and perpetuate something that’s being received for all the wrong reasons, basically.”

Chances are when this movie finally does come out it will be just another of Franco's ambitious, challenging projects that audiences avoid like the plague. We'll see if any of it comes together as expected but the idea of Franco as Wiseau is worth getting a little excited about.  [via TheFilmstage]

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James Franco to Direct Film on the Making of Cult Hit 'The Room'

Of all the weird, unlikely movies to become cult hits, perhaps The Room is the one toughest to explain. Tommy Wiseau's odd little film, referred to by some as one of the worst movies ever back in 2003, has grown in reputation and recognition over the last decade, to the point where it still screens somewhere practically every Friday night to packed crowds of adoring, line-quoting fans. Among those adoring fans is James Franco, who has decided he wants to make a movie about the making of the movie.

Franco has picked up the rights to The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, based on the book by Greg Sestero, who co-starred and co-wrote The Room, and so had an inside view at the incredible production. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg will produce, and it looks as if James and his brother Dave Franco will take the top acting roles.

In his review of Sestero's book for Vice, Franco draws a connection between the works of Paul Thomas Anderson, which may clue us in to the approach he plans to take...

"The book reads like the combination of two Paul Thomas Anderson film scripts: Boogie Nights in its focus on a group of optimistic outsiders trying to be artistic with a project that defies all artistic pretentions, and The Master with its arrangement around a bizarre mentor-pupil relationship….Because this book, The Disaster Artist, is about a bad movie, and because Tommy Wiseau could be so easily mocked, one can see how such a book could turn into a thin recounting of all the crazy things that happened, simply to make fun of them. Instead the book is both a great portrayal of hopefuls coming to Los Angeles to pursue their ambitions, and an even greater examination of what it means to be a creative person with a dream, and trying to make it come true in a form that is just as much a business, and an insider social group, as it is an art."

Franco's fascination with the making of somewhat underground cult flicks has been seen before with Interior. Leather Bar, a recreation of scenes from the controversial 1980 film, Cruising. So in a way his tackling the making of The Room seems like a perfect fit.  [Deadline]

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