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Jason Statham Ready to Protect the 'Homefront' from James Franco

by Ben Pearson
July 31, 2012
Source: Variety

It's no secret that Jason Statham and Sylvester Stallone are kindred spirits. Representative of the new and old guard of big screen action heroes, the two joined forces in the first Expendables movie and are coming back for the sequel on August 17th this summer. But who knew James Franco was an action hero wannabe? According to Variety, the eclectic young actor is suiting up to play a villain opposite Statham in a new action movie called Homefront, written by Stallone himself. The story sounds a bit like the 1973 film Walking Tall (or its more recent 2004 remake), and surprise, surprise, it sounds like it will be full of action.

Statham will play an ex-DEA agent who moves his family to a small town to escape his troubled past (of course), but he finds that it's overrun with crime, drugs, and a meth boss named Gator (Franco) is the boss behind it all. The closest thing Franco has done to a straight up action movie is Spider-Man 3, not to mention action comedy in Pineapple Express, but he also had a quick cameo appearance in Michel Gondry's The Green Hornet as a crimelord who faces off against Christoph Waltz in one of the film's more memorable scenes. This should be another great opportunity to chew some scenery, especially with a name as ridiculous as "Gator." I expect more of the same from Statham - a permanent scowl, some martial arts action, etc. - but at least this sounds like a more interesting environment for him to do his thing than his recent run of movies, which have honestly been a bit disappointing.

Perhaps Stallone can muster up some of those writing skills that got him nominated for an Oscar with Rocky back in 1976...I'm sorry, I'm a Stallone fan and even I can't type that with a straight face. We can pretty much already tell that this film isn't going to win any Oscars, but hopefully Stallone will be able to deliver a solid story that makes us care about the characters instead of just counting down the screen time to more action. Gary Fleder (Kiss the Girls, Runaway Jury) is directing, so this one could go either way.

Filed under Casting, Development, Movie News

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