James Franco To Play Drug Lord In Sylvester Stallone’s New Thriller

James Franco has played a lot of different characters over the years, though I don’t recall him ever tackling the role of a hardcore meth dealer. Adding yet another interesting role to his diversified filmography, Franco will play an “evil meth magnate” in Sylvester Stallone’s upcoming thriller “Homefront”. Who will stop Franco from polluting the word with illegal drugs? Why, Jason Statham, of course.

Here’s what the movie is about: An ex-DEA agent (Statham) moves to a small town with his family to get away from hectic, day-to-day turmoil usually associated with drug enforcement. What he doesn’t know, of course, is that this seemingly quaint American town is actually saturated in illegal activity, spearheaded by the fearsome Gator (Franco). Sounds like a good time at the cineplex to me.

The film, which is based on the television series of the same name, will be scripted by Stallone, directed by Gary Fleder, and produced by Avi Lerner, the latter of whom had nothing but swell things to say about the upcoming production.

“I cannot think of a better group to put this film on the big screen,” Lerner explained to Variety. “[Sylvester Stallone’s] script is fantastic, James and Jason are remarkable actors and Gary really knows how to direct this type of film. We start production at the end of September in New Orleans.”

Franco, meanwhile, continues to be an actor that’s in very high demand these days. In addition to starring as Hugh Hefner in the forthcoming biopic “Lovelace”, James can also be seen in “Oz: The Great and Powerful”, “The Iceman”, “Black Dog, Red Dog”, and “The End of the World”, among others.

Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone, meanwhile, will once again send a bevy of explosions and cheesy one-liners raining upon moviegoers when “The Expendables 2” hits theaters on August 17.