It was around this time last year that we could go barely a week without hearing a new story about James Franco. Riding high on Oscar buzz for his performance in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, Franco began picking up projects left and right, buying the rights to various books and signing on for new acting gigs. One of the most interesting projects on the horizon was his movie The Broken Tower, not just because of the film's content but because it would mark Franco's return behind the camera as a director. Now the first trailer for the film is online, courtesy of Focus Features and you can check it out below.



As the trailer is only 30 seconds long, it's hard to grasp exactly what's going on in the movie, but off the bat we learn that Franco has made the stylistic choice of shooting in black-and-white. The film is about the poet Hart Crane, one of the more tragic figures of the 20th century. In addition to being a heavy alcoholic, his most ambitious work was critically panned and he wound up comitting suicide at the age of 32 by jumping off of a boat in the Gulf of Mexico. The movie co-stars Michael Shannon, Stacey Miller, and Dave Franco and is currently available On Demand.