While the Oscar nomination never came through for James Franco and his delightfully deranged turn in Harmony Korine‘s “Spring Breakers,” it was some of the best work the actor has ever done. And it would seem that Franco isn’t done being inspired by Korine’s particular sensibilities.
According to rappers ATL Twins, the duo that featured in “Spring Breakers” as part of Alien’s posse, they’ve got another project with Franco in the works—an adaptation of Harmony Korine‘s novel “A Crack Up At The Race Riots.” “[Franco’s] going to be like a KKK leader and we’re gonna be his goons. It’s really strange, in a good way,” they told the The New York Post. And that’s not even the half of it. Korine’s book, first published 1998, and reissued last year by Drag City, is a provocative story set in a world run by MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Here’s the Amazon synopsis that gets across how….unique….it is:
Originally published by Mainstreet/Doubleday in 1998, this debut novel from an underground filmmaker uses print, photographs, drawings, news clippings, handwriting, a poem, attempted diagrams, and clip art to enhance the text, which primarily tells of a race war that happens in Florida, where the Jewish people sit in trees, the black people are run by MC Hammer, and the white people are run by Vanilla Ice. Or as the author himself described it front of a national television audience, “I wanted to write the Great American Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Novel.” In actuality, it is a collection of hard-luck stories, off-and-on-color jokes, script scraps, found letters, free rhymes, drug flashbacks, and other missing scenes, all exploring the world of show business with fingers prying in the cracks and feet set lightly in the black humors of the real world. With chapters about books found in Monty Clift’s basement and Tupac Shakur’s 10 favorite novels, and a set of 11 suicide notes with room included for the reader’s signature, the book is a one-of-a-kind post-postmodern examination of the dangers of public life from a unique voice in independent culture, one that might make William S. Burroughs sigh and turn the page at least.
There’s no other word on the project, so it’s not clear if Korine is involved or if this is just an artistic lark taken on by Franco. But yeah, we’re curious and hopefully some more word surfaces soon. We’d certainly be pleased if Korine and Franco indeed got back together on another film.