August 23, 2012 | Arts / Entertainment

Straight James Franco still doing the gay thing

James Franco has teamed up with gay art-porn director Travis Mathews to produce James Franco's Cruising, a project inspired by William Friedkin's 1980 gay murder mystery Cruising.

Initially Franco wanted to update the movie, but he failed to secure the rights needed to do so. Instead, Franco's project explores his attempts to re-imagine 40 minutes of the film that have been lost. The 40 minutes had been deleted in order to obtain an MPAA rating of R instead of X, so you know they're juicy.

Mathews explained that "recently, when [Friedkin] was getting ready to do an anniversary edition, Warner Bros. told him that the footage was destroyed. It's possible those 40 minutes implicate Pacino's character in the gay S&M culture. That was the place we started from as a launching point: James Franco's version of those lost 40 minutes."

When Cruising was initially being filmed in 1979, the gay community was not at all supportive, fearing the movie played to the stereotype that homosexuals were perverts. Many people even tried to disrupt filming by pointing mirrors from rooftops to ruin lighting for scenes, blasting whistles and air horns near locations, and playing loud music.

"The production was so concerned with the protestors that the extras would be picked up by buses to be taken to the set at an undisclosed location," said Mathews.

Mathews hopes to debut the final cut of the new film in early 2013, but will be creating an installation version of the footage in a gallery beginning September 12.

And still we're left to wonder why Franco is so interested in gay-themed projects if he's really a straight boy ...

James Franco Teams With Gay Art-Porn Director Travis Mathews For a 'Cruising'-Inspired Film [Indie Wire]