James Franco As Drug Kingpin In Sylvester Stallone’s ‘Homefront’ [Photos]


What do you get when you mix James Franco as a kingpin, B-action actor Jason Statham, and Winona Ryder? You get Sylvester Stallone’s script for Homefront. Directed by Gary Fleder (Runaway Jury), basied on a novel by Chuck Hogan (“Prince of Thieves”), Homefront stars an unlikely duel between Franco and Statham.

In the film Franco plays Gator, a drug kingpin (surely a nice move up from pot dealer a la Saul Siver in Pineapple Express). In the film Franco controls Winona Ryder, who is one of his thugettes. On the other side is a former DEA agent (Jason Statham) who moves his family to a town that’s small enough so they won’t be found. Statham surely can’t stay put, so he becomes entangled in whatever meth dealings Gator is involved in.

Gary Fleder told USA Today about the climate of his film:

“Looking at it with the paradigm of the Western, (Franco) is the guy with the black hat on. Even the sheriff doesn’t want to mess with him.” Statham agrees with Fleder, detailing how much of a change this is from his usual tough guys roles:

“I’ve done certain kind of roles up to now, and this is different from the usual tough guy role. In this film you get to see the lighter side of me yet there is still the tough guy element in the character.”

For Franco this isn’t the only bad guy role he’s played in the past. However his role as Gator, in comparison to say, his rapping gangsta Alien in last year’sSpring Breakers, seems to be a little toned down, if going by Statham’s perception of Franco’s performance.

Of Franco slipping into the role as the film’s kingpin, Statham said:

“He’s a great actor and didn’t go down the usual path of being a ‘scary’ villain. He has the ability to bring out the quirkiness and eerie side to this character.”

In addition to Jason Statham, Winona Ryder, and James Franco, the film also stars Kate Bosworth, Vincent D’Onofrio, Mischa Barton, Frank Grillo and Clancy Brown. Homefront hits theaters on November 27.

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