He stopped by Sundance with Interior. Leather Bar., then went on to Cannes with As I Lay Dying and this fall, James Franco will make a trifecta with Child of God, which will show both at Venice and TIFF. Led by the director himself, along with Scott Haze, Tim Blake Nelson and Jim Parrack, he’s jumping from William Faulkner to Cormac McCarthy for hopefully a worthy adaptation. The first teaser has now landed today, which is unfortunately about as brief as it gets, but one can check it out below, along with the synopsis.
Set in mountainous Sevier County, Tennessee in the 1960s, Child of God tells the story of Lester Ballard, a dispossessed, violent man whom the narrator describes as “a child of God much like yourself perhaps.” Ballard’s life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Deprived of both his parents and a home, and with few other ties, Ballard descends to the level of a cave dweller, falling deeper into crime and degradation.
Child of God screens at Venice and TIFF.