[UPDATE: Thanks a million to Joao Mattos for sending us the original Ginsberg-Orlovsky photo on which the Franco-Tveit pose is modeled. Great catch!]
Did the dueling Truman Capote biopics 3 years ago open the floodgates on films bringing the significance of contemporary gay history out of the closet? Alex Billington at Firstshowing.net has this photo of James Franco as Beat Generation poet Alan Ginsberg and Aaron Tveit his longtime companion Peter Orlovsky. Check out this fabulous cast:
James Franco … Allen Ginsberg
Aaron Tveit … Peter Orlovsky
Mary-Louise Parker … Gail Potter
Jeff Daniels … Professor David Kirk
David Strathairn … Ralph McIntosh
Jon Hamm … Jake Ehrlich
Alessandro Nivola … Luther Nichols
Treat Williams … Mark Schorer
Bob Balaban … ?
The movie involves the obscenity charges faced by Ginsberg after the publication of his seminal poem. Howl is exec produced by Gus Van Sant, and directed by Rob Epstein (The Times of Harvey Milk) and Jeffrey Friedman (The Celluloid Closet). No distributor yet, so we might not see it until 2010.
Another photo of Alan Ginsberg and his lifelong partner Peter Orlovsy, after the cut.
31 Responses for "James Franco as Alan Ginsberg"
Beavis: Heh heh heh, you said ’seminal poem.’
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The first couple of kittens I ever had were named Burroughs and Ginsberg.
eh
I first knew of Ginsberg with his vocal cameo in that The Clash tune “Ghetto Defendent.”
Loved David Cross’ interpretation of him in I’M NOT THERE with that Crucifixion scene where he tells that Jesus idol: “Get down from there son or you’ll get hurt!”
Alright not exactly accurately quoted, but thats my paraphrasing.
More gay James Franco please.
ha! I almost said the same thing in the post, blerg. Trying to think what other 1960s-70s gay icons I’d like to see him play.
James Franco as Joe Delesandro?
James Franco
way to get typecast. You were good in milk but please not another gay role. Branch out and try different things while you’ve got the chance.
I`m happy he`s getting high-profile roles. At one point, it seemed like he`d be the only Spiderman cast member who didn`t profit from the exposure but, fortunately, the industry didn`t write him off and now he`s all the rage.
Biopic = Oscar?
Mmm… closeted gay biopics? How about one certain Pope? Lol, ask in Munich.
Bambi – I think Franco is profiting more than his two cast-mates. I mean have you watched a Maguire or Dunst movie outside of that franchise in the last 4 years?
For me, I guess MARIE ANTOINETTE and….does seeing the GOOD GERMAN trailer count?
I think playing Sal in Pineapple Express will keep Franco for ever being typecast and will keep playing complex, interesting roles that push his range as an actor and keep us surprised for many years….I think we all were a little surprised that Franco had Sal in him….
Ryan, I’m totally with you….
I’d love to see Franco strutting his stuff as Peter Berlin….yikes!
RRA, you`ve already forgot Best Picture nominee Seabiscuit? Yikes for Biscuit!
I agree with you. The difference between Dunst and Franco was that she had high-profile bombs (Marie-Antoinette, Elisabethtown,etc) while Franco had low-key (barely advertised, 1000 cinemas tops release) flops (Tristan&isolde, Flyboys, Annapolis,etc). So I was worried he`d never get out of those F list productions.
I think Franco is becoming a high star right now, last year he created two extremely different but excellent characters: Sal Paradise in “Pinneaple Express” and Scott Smith in “Milk”, but he’s a good career for James Dean biography (Even his performance was Oscar Worthy), City by the Sea and the TV serie “Freaks & Geeks. Next year he’ll start “Date Night” alongside Tina Fey and Steve Carrell (Two of the biggest comedians in Hollywood right now).
Plus: It’s always welcome gay James Franco
James Franco is working his way up. I hope he doesn’t become a typecast, so I kinda hope he does less gay roles, but last year really did it for him with his performances in Pineapple Express and Milk. I think he will succeed.
Tobey Maguire had a good line of films in the late 1990’s and has stayed decent this decade with his blockbuster Spider-Man films, Seabiscuit, The Good German, Wonder Boys, and he’s starring in Jim Sheridan’s Brothers this year.
i can’t wait to see this
Bambi – But SEABISCUIT came out in 2003.
And yeah, you’re right about the difference between Franco and Dunst. I mean amazing how Franco had a long streak of financial losers, including that Nicholas Cage-directed picture, and Franco is the best off and most high profile these days.
Too bad he had to drop out of Nolan’s INCEPTION.
JR – He’s in BROTHERS? Shit thats news to me. But alot of those you cited, were what many many years ago? Hell WONDER BOYS was 9 years ago. I did enjoy him in PLEASANTVILLE though.
One would think his career would be better, considering he pulled off a Triple H (i.e. an “actor” marrying the kid of a studio mogul.)
I don’t get it, how is playing two DIFFERENT gay characters being typecast? Unless, you guys are saying that all gays are exactly the same.
I’m confused :-/
lily
he’s playing two prominent gay characters in a row and that’s not good. The last thing he wants is to become the go to guy for gay biopics. I’m surprised he took this role; he should have shunned it and gone for something different. At least try two (or more) other dynamic roles before you pick up another gay character.
So are you upset about him being in two biopics ( back to back) or playing gay characters back to back? Because, to me it doesn’t matter as long as the characters aren’t similar who cares. I mean no one seems to care that Michelle Williams plays the sad depressed White female in almost all of her films or that Amy Adams plays the wide eyed innocent White female in her films.
I, for one, wouldn’t mind James Franco in more gay roles. I’m sure my feeling this way has to do with a love of film, and er…characters and such.
Great cast. It’s a round-up of underdogs… with serious chops. Excited to see Broadway boy Aaron Tveit get a leading role. This hopefully will be a grand entrance onto the celluloid. He’s definitely going to be an “it” kid soon, if Broadway hasn’t already done that for him.
Which, by the way, why are they making Catch Me If You Can a musical? Can someone PLEASE write an ORIGINAL idea for this genre? Please. Please! If Blood Diamond or The Hours becomes a musical…
Oh no. I probably just gave someone an idea.
Franco is also too conventionally pretty to play Ginsberg; I doubt he would do Ginsberg’s eccentricity much justice.
4 months! 3 weeks! 2 days! The Musical!
Have you seen Aaron Tveit on Broadway, tmoves?
I have another Ginsberg post in the draft folder (Jesse Eisenberg as Alan Ginsberg). But didn’t want to overload the site with too much gay in one day. Kill Your Darlings. Another movie I’m really looking forward in a few months. We might see neither of these until 2010 though.
“he’s playing two prominent gay characters in a row and that’s not good. The last thing he wants is to become the go to guy for gay biopics. I’m surprised he took this role; he should have shunned it and gone for something different. At least try two (or more) other dynamic roles before you pick up another gay character.”
I don’t think is necessary a bad thing. In fact a good examples of well established actors play consecutive gay characters/gay theme films:
*Emile Hirsch (The Mudge Boy and Imaginary Heroes)
*Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Latter Days and Mysterious Skin)
*Javier Bardem (Before Night Falls and Second Skin)
*Gael Garcia Bernal (Y tu Mama Tambien and Bad Education)
*Jude Law (Wilde and The Talented Mr. Ripley) – Those films were released in years consecutives in USA
*Malik Zidi (Gouttes d’eau sur pierres brûlantes and Froid comme l’été)
Plus, if the film would released in 2010 he had another two films before… “your Highness” and “Date Night”.
Um, I’m really rather disheartened to think that playing two gay characters is such a bad thing for a person’s career…Xavi, great info on actors’ suicidal decision to play back to back gays….can’t believe I’ve heard of all of them considering how bad it is for one’s career….
I truly appreciate an actor who continues to stretch and grow and choose parts that allow them to do so….James Franco is slowly becoming an actor to watch if he keeps challenging himself with comedy, drama and the dreaded gay biopic.
I would be more excited about this if the actual Ginsberg didn’t annoy me.
I like Franco though. Good movie star. Don’t really consider him much of an actor however. Reminds me of Jeremy Sisto.
Great, another biopic about an overrated beat generation poet. And not to mention Ginsberg was a NAMBLA member as well.
Aaron Tveit in a movie? Wow. I hung out with him a couple of times when he was doing “Hairspray” in Boston. Super nice guy, that’s exciting.
“he’s playing two prominent gay characters in a row and that’s not good. The last thing he wants is to become the go to guy for gay biopics.”
On the contrary, Afrika, I think the last thing that Franco wants to do it so listen to idiots like yourself. Please feel free to take that personally.
An overrated poet played by an overrated actor who’s way too good-looking to be playing him. Seriously, a movie about Alan Ginsberg? Did the filmmakers actively decide to pick a painfully boring subject and make a movie out of it? And being that Franco’s character in Milk didn’t act overtly gay, I seriously doubt it’ll be a problem for his career. You’re gonna get typecast based on personalities you play. He acts like a regular guy in Milk and besides, his character/performance in it is forgettable anyway (not really his fault) so I doubt most people are going to notice.
Proman
Oh! I notice a trend. I see what you are doing, jumping from thread to thread, trying to lure me into an argument with you. You are an article of no commercial value Mister. Thus, I won’t even waste me time. Run along kiddo, go pick a fight with someone else. I’m sure the ADD-stricken RRA will be more than willing to entertain a heated debate with you.
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