MULTIPLE MAN: James Franco Confirms Development on X-Men Project, Teases "Hard R" Rating

A few days ago, it was reported that James Franco is joining the X-Men universe as star and producer of Multiple Man, based on the character of the same name. The film centers on Jamie Madrox, a mutant who has the ability to create clones of himself. Now, Franco has addressed his involvement with the project.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Franco confirms that he’s working with producer Simon Kinberg on an X-Men project, but doesn’t say the name of it. “I do have a superhero that I am developing. I don’t know how much I can say. But I will say I am producing and performing in it. It’s early stages. I think probably what I can say is, like anything, there’s a need to develop more.”

Franco then explains what attracted him to the franchise in the first place. Basically, both he and the X-Men team had the same goal: breaking new ground. “Our bottom line MO is, how can we push this into new ground? A little bit, but still make it entertaining? [But] what I love about what Simon Kinberg and Fox and the X-Men people have done with Deadpool and Logan – it took a while to get there, maybe 10 years – but they are going to go hard R. And we’re going to take this superhero thing and really just push it into a new genre.”

While most big modern superhero movies are PG-13, Fox recently allowed for lower-budget R-rated films with Deadpool and Logan. Both films were huge hits for the studio, so it shouldn’t be surprising that they’re doing it for other properties, such as Multiple Man.