James Franco and Christian Slater are rival porn producers in King Cobra trailer

The trailer for King Cobra starts off unsettlingly enough. A young Sean Paul Lockhart (Garrett Clayton) is being seduced on grainy video, encouraged to remove his clothes for the man behind the camera, Stephen (played with an arachnid oiliness by Christian Slater). We think we know where the story is going, as Lockhart is lured into Stephen’s orbit with gifts, promises and propositions. Lockhart is rechristened “Brent Corrigan,” and in the wilderness of online pornography’s formative years, Stephen sees Brent as the key to building his own gay porn empire.

And then King Cobra’s trailer quickly takes a left turn as James Franco enters the picture as Joe, a rival porn producer who would love to contract out Stephen’s golden body for a spin. “Brent Corrigan” is Stephen’s licensed trademark, and the producer doesn’t seem inclined to hand his pet golden goose over to the competition.

Clayton’s Lockhart all but disappears into Brent Corrigan, who is presented as a bronzed angel, both a lusty object of flesh and a valuable chess piece to be played for practical gain. As is obvious to those outside Lockhart’s new life, his innocence is being cynically corrupted by experts operating on the fringes of legality, who will do anything to get ahead. Based on the real-life murder of porn-producer Bryan Kocis, King Cobra’s trailer’s flurry of scenes charged with sexuality and violence escalate towards a deadly confrontation.

King Cobra rises October 21.