With James Franco currently basking in the deserved adulation thrown the way of The Disaster Artist (read our five-star review here), it was announced last week that he’d return to the genre in which he first came to prominence by starring in the X-Men spinoff Multiple Man.
Now further details have been released by The Hollywood Reporter, most interesting of which is the news that Multiple Man will walk in the same R-rated footsteps as two recent 20th Century Fox genre high-water marks, Logan and Deadpool, both of which were referenced by the actor:
“Our bottom line MO is, how can we push this into new ground? A little bit, but still make it entertaining? [But] what I love about what Simon Kinberg and Fox and the X-Men people have done with Deadpool and Logan — it took a while to get there, maybe 10 years — but they are going to go hard R. And we’re going to take this superhero thing and really just push it into a new genre. So we’re working with Simon Kinberg on an X-Men property.”
Franco will take on the role of Jamie Madrox in the Multiple Man film. Allan Heinberg (Wonder Woman) is penning the script, while Franco will produce alongside X-Men veteran Simon Kinberg.
Multiple Man was created by Len Wein and first appeared in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #4 back in 1975. He is a mutant who has the ability to create “dupes” – perfect replicas of himself – and absorb them back into himself, gaining their memories, knowledge and skills.
Does the rating allow for more creative freedom within a genre often blighted by formula, or doesn’t it make a difference to you? Let us know what you think by leaving multiple comments below…
