James Franco intensifies his acting comeback and plays one of the lead roles in the Danish director Bille AugustusThe post-WWII coming-of-age drama Me youadapted from the novel Tue, Mia by Erri DeLuca.
Franco plays alongside Tom Hollander (The night manager) and Daisy Jacob (Vanity Fair), where the main photography will take place in Ischia from September.
Franco retired from acting after a string of sexual misconduct allegations by several women early 2018, at the height of the #MeToo movement. In addition, students at Franco’s now-closed film and acting school, Studio 4, sued the actor and his partners in 2019, accusing them of forcing acting students to perform in increasingly explicit sex scenes in front of the camera. In 2021, Franco and related entities agreed to pay $2,235,000 to settle the lawsuit.
Located in Ischia in the 1950s, Me you focuses on 16-year-old Marco, who spends his days “sailing in the calm waters of the Bay of Naples with the hardened fisherman Nicola”, played by Franco, “seducing Marco with his wounded tales of the sea and the war after his military service as an American GI,” reads one plot description. “Shy and curious, Marco sets out to experience all that his enchanting new environment, so far removed from his native London and bleak Scottish boarding school.”
Marco is on vacation with his parents (Hollander plays his father Edward) and “enters into a summer that will change him forever when he meets the enigmatic Caia (20)”, played by Jacob, and falls in love with her. “A beautiful complicity develops between the two when Caia reveals her painful past; a youth stolen by the SS and a father who drove his daughter off a train in Yugoslavia to save her from the horrors of a concentration camp. Nicola and Caia’s harrowing stories arouse a savage resentment towards the SS in Marco, and when he encounters a group of rude German tourists on the island, he decides to avenge Caia’s pain. This rings alarm bells for Caia who avoids him, but, fueled by his infatuation and impossible love for her, Marco plans an arson attack at the German’s villa to prove he is worthy of Caia’s affection.
directed by August (Pelle the Conqueror† The best intentions), with a screenplay written by Greg Latter (Goodbye Bafana† Me you was produced by Sean O’Kelly of Brilliant Pictures (iron air) and Marc Bikindou (Black Dahlia† Disappointment), Mark Hammond of Cristaldi Pics (The traitor), along with Jad Ben Ammar and Leo Maidenberg (deep fear† Sisters in Arms) who are on board as co-producers.
“I am delighted to embark on this phenomenal project and to collaborate with the legendary Bille August,” said Franco. “I’m a big fan of his work, and Me you is a really brilliant script.”
Brilliant Pictures, based in London and Rome, manages the worldwide sales rights. Franco is represented by Anonymous Content and United Talent Agency in the US, as well as Adequat Agency in France. Hollander is represented by Anonymous Content in the US and United Agents in the UK
For this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Market, it was revealed that Franco would star in an action thriller mace from The singing detective director Jon Amiel.