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"He's probably the worst person that I've ever played, just
because I have such a great family and there's just something so
horrible about killing your kids. So I have very little
connection to him," Franco told Reuters.
"True Story," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on
Friday and will be released by Fox Searchlight in U.S. theaters
on April 10, is based on the memoir of former New York Times
journalist Mike Finkel, who formed a friendship with a murderer
who used his name as an alias.
What unfolds is a complex relationship as Finkel, played by
Jonah Hill, meets Franco's Longo, an Oregon man awaiting trial
for brutally killing his wife and three children. The two men
find common ground in writing but the dynamic wavers as each man
struggles with his search for intellectual credibility.
"I think it's to do with nemesis. I think it's a very male
thing," said director Rupert Goold, who made his film debut with
"True Story."
Goold, a British theater director, said much of "True Story"
played out like Shakespeare's "Othello," a story of male
friendship and betrayal.
To prepare, Franco watched tapes of Longo testifying at his 2003
trial, which he called "chilling," but he opted not to visit the
convicted killer currently on Death Row.
"There was no need to go and meet him, and I certainly didn't
want to give him any attention or validation by doing that," he
said.
Franco and Hill starred together in Seth Rogen and Evan
Goldberg's raunchy 2013 apocalypse spoof, "This is the End," and
Hill is well known for his comedic roles in films such as "The
Wolf of Wall Street."
But the duo spun a twist on their friendship to play out the
drama of "True Story," which Franco said was essential for the
movie to work.
"You need the audience to, on some level, want to watch this
budding friendship," Franco said.
"Because Jonah and I do have a history, people do know us in a
different, more comedic sphere, our relationship in this film
had a little something extra because of that."
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Alan Raybould)
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James
Franco finds his most despicable character in 'True Story'
