James Franco may join Ben Stiller and Noah Baumbach for 'While We're Young'

By Sarah Sluis

So Greenberg wasn't a home run hit, but its unconventional point-of-view puts it ahead of many of the films released this year, and leaves viewers like me wanting more of writer/director Noah Baumbach's distinctive sensibility. For Baumbach's next project, he plans to reteam with Ben Stiller and possibly Stiller's Greenberg co-star Greta Gerwig for While We're Young, which has a second male lead: James Franco, one of the more interesting stars out there.

Franco is a bit of a Hollywood enigma, but the success of his most recent film, 127 Hours, may force him to clarify who he is: An actor? A soap opera star ("General Hospital")? A university student (Columbia, Yale)? A documentarian (Saturday Night)? A poet and performance artist (review here)? An Oscar host--or perhaps a Best Actor nominee for 127 Hours? In his role in While We're Young, Franco would play one-half of a free-spirited couple (with Gerwig perhaps being his mate) that forces a documentary filmmaker (Stiller) and his wife (Cate Blanchett) to open up and live a little. Apparently the Blanchett part was in the works as a role for Baumbach's wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, but maybe it wasn't juicy enough--she just filed for divorce from him.

Along with the recent addition of four Independent Spirit nominations, Greenberg eked up a respectable but not breakout figure of $4.2 million this year (more than Margot at the Wedding but less than The Squid and the Whale). The prolific producer Scott Rudin will return to produce Baumbach's next project, presumably keeping costs low and expectations high.