James Franco Is Playing a Meth Dealer Named ‘Gator’ in a Jason Statham Movie Written by Sylvester Stallone

James FrancoOh, happy day! Variety reports that James Franco has signed up for Homefront, which follows “Phil Broker (Statham), an ex-DEA agent who moves his family to a quiet town hoping to escape his past. However, he finds the town to be overrun with violence, drug traffickers and an evil meth magnate named Gator (Franco). To save his endangered family, retribution is now the only thing Broker seeks.” And yes, Sly wrote the film but won’t be starring in it. Hopefully they’ll bring him on set and let him have all kinds of unimpeachable creative input, though?

Let’s talk about Franco’s possible motivations here. On the one hand, you could think, Oh, look, James Franco has decided to pause the creative dilettantism that has swung him through such job titles as Playboy columnist and TV critic and “homo-sex-art-film” maker long enough to make an awesome, enjoyable-to-all movie in which Jason Statham kicks everyone’s ass. On the other, you could think, James Franco is definitely just playing a meth dealer named Gator in a Jason Statham movie so he can eventually make a documentary about the internally polarizing reality that is playing a meth dealer named Gator in a Jason Statham movie. Either way, who cares — the potential glory that is Homefront is on the horizon. And I, for one, will be expecting Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans levels of insanity.

Filed Under: Franco, James Franco, Jason Statham, Sylvester Stallone

Amos Barshad has written for New York Magazine, Spin, GQ, XXL, and the Arkansas Times. He is a staff writer for Grantland.

Archive @ AmosBarshad