James Franco will play a U.S. Navy soldier stationed in post-Second World War Naples where he raises a child in the Italian drama Hey Joe. Directed by Claudio Giovannesi, Hey Joe is currently shooting in the southern port city. Palomar in tandem with RAI Cinema and Vision Distribution is producing the film. Giovannesi and ace Neapolitan writer Maurizio Braucci wrote the Hey Joe screenplay. Earlier, he worked with Giovannesi on Piranhas. The director is filming “Hey Joe” with his “customary gritty, naturalistic style,” said Degli Esposti. He added that Franco is “an amazing actor who has really bonded with Giovannesi and with Italy.”
James Franco in Italian Drama Hey Joe
In Hey Joe, James Franco plays an American sailor Dean Berry. In 1944 at the age of 23, Dean disembarks in Naples which has been devastated due to bombing. He falls in love with a young and local woman named Lucia. A couple of years later, Dean is compelled to abandon pregnant Lucia to return to New Jersey. He eventually returns to find the woman and her son, Enzo. However, Naples has changed a lot and Dean must deal with these challenges.
The film’s cast also comprises Francesco Di Napoli (Piranhas), Giulia Ercolini, Aniello Arena (Reality, Fiore), and Francesca Montuori (My Brilliant Friend). James Franco is also starring as a Beirut-based American crime boss in the upcoming crime series Karantina. He is set to appear as Fidel Castro in Spanish director Miguel Bardem’s Castro’s Daughter (aka Alina of Cuba). And, he will play the villain in the French action-thriller The Price of Money – A Largo Winch Adventure, to be directed by Olivier Masset-Depasse.
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