James Franco has landed a lead role in director Bille August’s post-World War II coming-of-age drama “Me, You”.
Based on the novel “Tu, Mia” by Erri De Luca, the 1950s-set film follows 16-year-old Marco, who spends his days “sailing in the tranquil waters of the bay of Naples with hardened fisherman Nicola, who beguiles Marco with his wounded tales of the sea and the war following his military service as a US GI”.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Franco will play Nicola in the upcoming drama, alongside “The Night Manager” actor Tom Hollander, 54, as Marco’s father Edward and “Everything I Know About Love” actress Daisy Jacob as Marco’s love interest Caia.
The 44-year-old actor said: “I am excited to board this phenomenal project and to be working with the legendary Bille August. I’m a huge fan of his work, and ‘Me, You’ is a truly brilliant script.”
A synopsis for the film teases: “Deeply tender and bittersweet, ‘Me, You’ explores the raw beauty and tragedy of love, the age of innocence and the bitter realities of war.”
Franco stepped away from acting following a series of sexual misconduct allegations made by multiple women in 2018.
In 2019, students at Franco’s now-closed acting school Studio 4 sued the actor and his partners, accusing them of pushing acting students to perform explicit scenes on camera.
The actor and his partners agreed to pay $2.2 million (£1.7 million) last year to settle the lawsuit.
Franco last year admitted during an interview on SiriusXM’s “The Jess Cagle Podcast” he slept with students while teaching at the school, saying: “Over the course of my teaching, I did sleep with students, and that was wrong.
“But like I said, it’s not why I started the school and I wasn’t the person that selected the people to be in the class.
“So it wasn’t a ‘master plan’ on my part. But yes, there were certain instances where, you know what, I was in a consensual thing with a student and I shouldn’t have been.”