Drunken Fireworks movie with James Franco

[mae]

http://deadline.com/2016/06/james-fr...ry-1201766284/

Add the short story Drunken Fireworks to the number of Stephen King-penned fictions making their way to the big screen. Rabbit Bandini Productions and Rubicon Entertainment have teamed on the drama, and James Franco is set to star. He could possibly direct as well, but that hasn’t yet been decided. The script is being written by Matt Rager, a frequent Franco collaborator whose credits include As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury and the upcoming John Steinbeck novel adaptation In Dubious Battle, each of which Franco directed. Franco and his Rabbit Bandini partner Vince Jolivette will produce with Doug McKay, Robert Kaplan, Marc Senter and Nathan Grubbs of Rubicon Entertainment.

Drunken Fireworks is a darkly comic tale of a blue-collar mechanic and a retired mob boss who go head to head in an increasingly antagonistic annual Fourth of July fireworks competition. The tale is set in small town rural Maine, where local good ol’ boy Alden McCausland (Franco) strikes up a rivalry with retired mob boss Nicky Serrano when Nicky moves in across the lake from Alden and his mother. When Nicky bests Alden’s Fourth of July fireworks show, Alden goes to great lengths to ensure that he beats Nicky the next year in a competition known henceforth as the “Fourth of July Arms Race.”

Rabbit Bandini is currently in production on the post-apocalyptic thriller Future World, directed by Franco and starring Milla Jovovich, Lucy Liu, Snoop Dogg and Franco. Also currently in post-production is The Masterpiece with New Line Cinema, also directed by and starring Franco. He also stars in Fox’s Why Him with Bryan Cranston.

Rubicon is an upstart production formed by McKay, Kaplan, Senter, and Grubbs that raised a substantial development fund to hatch projects. This becomes their first major project. Franco and Rabbit Bandini are repped by CAA; Rager is repped by APA, Thruline and Jackaway Tyerman Wertheimer. King is repped by Paradigm.

[CyberGhostface]

Honestly don't know how you could make a whole film out of this but then again you could say that for most of his short stories that were made into movies.

[Brian861]

Why not. Sounds cool.

[Johnny Alien]

Honestly don't know how you could make a whole film out of this but then again you could say that for most of his short stories that were made into movies.

This made me do some research and every short story adaptation has been complete garbage with the exception of Children of the Corn. The Mangler, Lawnmower Man, Graveyard Shift, Maximum Overdrive, Sometimes They Come Back...all were pretty terrible. Even Children of the Corn is on the borderline. They are fine when in various stories movies like Creepshow or Tales From the Darkside.

And 11/22 gave me no real love of Franco in a King story.

[NoAttitudeThisTime]

You mean those films were garbage, right? But Big Driver, The Mist, 1408, The Night Flier, Dolan's Cadillac, and perhaps a few more were pretty good.

[Girlystevedave]

This story didn't make much of an impression on me compared to the other stories from Bazaar of Bad Dreams. Not sure why a movie would be made.

[Girlystevedave]

You mean those films were garbage, right? But Big Driver, The Mist, 1408, The Night Flier, Dolan's Cadillac, and perhaps a few more were pretty good.

I didn't see all that you mentioned, but I'd agree on 1408 and The Mist.

[mae]

Those were mainly novellas, not short stories, though.

[Johnny Alien]

Those were mainly novellas, not short stories, though.

The Mist is definitely into novella terrain. 1408 was an alright movie but nothing fantastic....better than the other ones mentioned by a long shot.

[NoAttitudeThisTime]

Those were mainly novellas, not short stories, though.

The Night Flier is a short story although not the shortest of the bunch. Most of the Night Shift adaptations didn't turn out so great, I agree, but I think there are some very fine adaptations of King's shorter works, stories or novellas.

[NoAttitudeThisTime]

Those were mainly novellas, not short stories, though.

The Mist is definitely into novella terrain. 1408 was an alright movie but nothing fantastic....better than the other ones mentioned by a long shot.

Yeah, 1408 should have been better...it was made into a more or less standard Hollywood horror movie, despite the strong lead of Cusack. They didn't really need to put in his daughter (she was not in the story/novella). I actually happen to think that The Mist is the best King adaptation ever. At least of the horror ones. Then we have Shawshank, Green Mile, Stand By Me...