James Franco to be a boundary-pushing artist who challenges sexual mores, also play Robert Mapplethorpe

The story of an artist who shattered convention, forced us to confront inhibitions with his homerotically charged work, and challenged the very notions of what art could be will get yet another chapter, as James Franco has signed on to star in another movie—namely the Robert Mapplethorpe biopic Mapplethorpe, which is the story of that guy who took some photos. The Hollywood Reporter notes that the film is one of this year’s recipients of Tribeca’s annual All Access Program grants, helping to bring the project to fruition after several years of development by first-time narrative director Ondi Timoner (known for the documentaries Dig! and We Live In Public) and producers Nate and Eliza Dushku, Eliza Dushku naturally being drawn to Mapplethorpe’s photographs because they are also sexy and two-dimensional. For Franco, the call to play Mapplethorpe is equally obvious, considering that it concerns a similarly misunderstood artist whose work sparks heated debates and occasionally involves dildos. In fact, some may argue that it is the role that Franco was born to play, while less drably linear minds might argue that it is Robert Mapplethorpe who was born so that someday Franco might play him.

If you can’t wait until Mapplethorpe or, more likely, sometime next Tuesday to see James Franco once again assume the persona of a controversial gay artist, and rouse the sleepwalking world from its swaddled stupor by handling a prosthetic dick, the Franco-directed, Franco-starring, Franco-fellating Hart Crane biopic The Broken Tower is currently available on demand, the trailer for which you can gaze upon below. Be forewarned that, like Crane’s poetry, the logic of metaphor takes precedence over all other logic, including the logic of shooting things in focus.