James Franco (Pineapple Express) has committed to starring in the movie Howl set up at Telling Pictures. Franco will be taking on the role of a young Allen Ginsberg in the feature film based on Ginsberg's Howl poem which was published 50 years ago.
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman (The Times of Harvey Milk, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt) are writing, producing and directing the film. Gus Van Sant (Milk) is executive producing.
Also joining the cast of Howl are David Strathairn as prosecuting attorney Ralph McIntosh, Alan Alda as Judge Clayton Horn, Jeff Daniels as prosecution witness Professor David Kirk, Mary-Louise Parker as radio personality/prosecution witness Gail Potter, and Paul Rudd as literary critic/defense witness Luther Nichols.
In a press release announcing the casting, Friedman said, "Fifty years later, Ginsberg's vision is as relevant as the year he wrote it, resonating with issues of free speech, government censorship, militaristic empire building, fear-mongering, sexual conformity and the co-opting of religion."
Howl will focus on the obscenity trial spawned by the poem's publication.
Source: Telling Pictures
