James Franco looking to revisit the whole James Dean thing with Sal Mineo biopic

He won a Golden Globe for his lead performance in the 2001 TV movie James Dean, and now James Franco will return to staging recreations of Rebel Without A Cause by putting together a biopic about Dean’s Cause co-star Sal Mineo. Franco has optioned the rights to the just-released Sal Mineo: A Biography, which traces the actor’s life from his early triumph of being a 16-year-old Oscar nominee through his later struggles with and ultimate embrace of his own homosexuality, to his murder at the age of 37, when Mineo was killed by a pizza deliveryman during an attempted robbery. Of course, while he’s considering writing and directing the film, Franco says he has no plans to star as of yet—although somehow we don’t think producers are going to go for that. In fact, we wouldn’t be surprised if Franco plays both Mineo and Dean utilizing some sort of split-screen effect. Otherwise it’s just a needless waste of resources.