Since our students are reading Howl for tomorrow, I thought I’d link to one of my favorite recent posts from Jeremiah. It has an especially great opener:
I kissed Allen Ginsberg. Once. Years ago. It was a wet, full-lipped,
slightly scruffy kiss. And I’m sure it was quite different from kissing
James Franco–who happens to be playing Allen in Gus Van Sant’s upcoming film Howl.
[The rest of the post here.]
I dunno. What do you think? I mean, Ginsberg had his own kind of sexy, but it was a different kind than Franco’s. I especially like this early photo:
Is he pointing to his apartment, or just to Moloch in general?
JF does have a history playing smart, sensitive, outsider stoners, though — all the way back to Freaks and Geeks. But will he be able to pull off the beard?
Maybe the film won’t get to the beard phase: it reportedly centers on Ginsberg’s 1957 obscenity trial in the wake of Howl‘s publication. Franco’s castmates, according to the Hollywood News, include 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 and prosecution witness Gail Potter, and Paul Rudd as literary critic and defense witness Luther Nichols.
Wow…if this comes to fruition I’d be first in line to see it. I’ve not had the chance to read much about the trial, but it certainly sounds interesting, and Franco seems like a great choice to play Ginsberg. Plus, Paul Rudd and Jeff Daniels and Mary-Louise Parker in supporting roles! ..but mostly just Paul Rudd (!). I wonder who’s directing.