Next Friday, August 31st, Lionsgate is releasing the new sci-fi action drama “Kin”. The cast is pretty solid: Carrie Coon, Jack Reynor, Zoe Kravitz and one of the most underrated actors of our time, Dennis Quaid. And James Franco.
“Kin” marks Franco’s first major film appearance since his sexual harassment scandal rocked Hollywood back in January. The scandal prevented Franco from earning an expected Best Actor Academy Award nomination for his performance as “The Room” director Tommy Wiseau in “The Disaster Artist”.
News of the allegations (which Franco denied) surfaced the week he won both Golden Globe and Critics Choice Best Actor awards. It also happened to be the prime Oscar voting period.
Franco attended the Globes (with Wiseau). But soon the situation got too big to handle. He decided not to appear at Critics Choice. When he was announced as the winner during the pre-show there was mostly silence, along with a few gasps and a mild amount of applause.
Franco did attend the SAG Awards (as a nominee) at the end of January, but he skipped the Independent Spirit Awards (where he lost to “Call Me By Your Name”’s Timothee Chalamet). “The Disaster Artist” still managed to receive a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar nomination, but “CMBYN”’s James Ivory was the shoe-in to win the category.
According to IMDb, Franco has seven other features and a short that are either listed as “Completed” or in “Post-Production”. These include “The Pretenders” – a film he partially shot around Albany, NY (my stomping ground) in Fall 2016. They’re all just waiting to be released. But when?
Can “Kin” mark the beginning of a comeback for Franco? In February HBO announced that the actor would be on Season 2 of their drama series “The Deuce”. It premiers Sunday September 9. And it was recently announced that Franco will be directing the film “Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN” for Focus Features.