Heartthrob James Franco GRD '16 will not be teaching a class this spring after all, but he has another project in the works that will involve undergrads.
Though Franco told Good Morning America earlier this month that he would teach a class at Yale come January, English Department Chair Michael Warner said Franco now calls the story a "mix-up."
"As a grad student in our program, he would not ordinarily teach until his third year," Warner said in an e-mail to the News. "[Franco] was referring to another project: a proposal for a college seminar that did not work out for this year."
Warner said Franco "evidently" gave the interview before he knew that the seminar was not happening.
But, after touching base with Franco, Warner added that the project will instead be developed as an undergrad film production, and Franco will be recruiting students from English, Theater, Music and Film Studies to work on it.
"More details will come in the fall," Warner said, adding in another email, that Franco "wants to help organize a film/theater project that will be produced by Yale undergrads, and will culminate in a series of shows in the spring."
Updated, 4:28 p.m. Ari Berkowitz '12 told the News that Franco will be staging a large-scale musical with a group of undergraduates next spring, in collaboration with Berkowitz and Matthew George '11.
"Students will get the chance to work intimately with the incredibly experienced and renowned actor," Berkowitz said in a statement. "At the end of first semester, applications will be accepted to join the production team and auditions will be held to help work on this all-student, extracurricular production. Originally the course had been planned as a production seminar, but it has changed in order to allow involvement to as many as possible."
Berkowitz's statement goes on to quote Franco: "[This] will not be a regular student production that will run for four shows. We have a bunch of funding and aim to make this a large project."
The script is in the works, Berkowitz said, adding that Franco has described the project as a “stage/film/musical/crazy production.”
