GH: Did James Franco hurt or help?

[AllMyDaysatGH]

Now comes word that James Franco will be returning to the show in the SPRING. To star, and co-direct an episode..I hate this.

[Ann_SS]

Guza continues to train his audience.

Guza better watch out. James Franco could become GH's next headwriter. LOL!

Truthfully, I don't care. Guza does what he wants. I am merely a cynical observer of this ridiculous play.

[Cat]

Thank you and ITA. At first I just thought it was part of the character's "I am a pretentious artiste" persona. Or at the very least JF being all method and wanting to try out different genres -- Daytime, Primetime, theatre, movies etc. But since reading some of the press he did for this GH gig, I am like "Oh, dear. He -- James Franco, the person -- actually believes in this?"

Exhibit A:

"I have been obsessed with performance art for over a decade, so I decided to experiment with the form myself when I signed to appear on General Hospital as the bad-boy artist 'Franco, just Franco.' I disrupted the audience's suspension of belief, because I was going to be perceived as something that doesn't belong in the stylised world of soap operas. Everyone watching would see an actor they recognise, a real person in a made-up world. It would be about inserting myself in a familiar space in such a way that it becomes stranger than fiction. In performance art, the outcome is uncertain. If it all goes to plan, it will definitely be weird, but is it art?"

Swear to God, I can hear the bong water bubbling in between sentences.

[Ann_SS]

I do have one question. Where is GH getting the budget to film in NY? It must cost a pretty penny. Only Jason and Sam must be in this episode with Franco.

[NorrthCafe]

I should have said that it's my speculation they're paying him gobs of money. I'd love to know, myself how much he's being paid. I doubt he comes cheap and I doubt he's coming back in the Spring for some paltry sum - unless the guy had no other prospects and this came across as welcomed job.

[JaneAusten]

Seriously I now totally get why he did this. Nothing at all to do with wanting to try a soap it was experimentation on this performance art nonsense. I guess no other medium would let him do it. Couldn't he have done a one man show or something off broadway instead.

[Sylph]

Well, if we examine the latest evidence — what you, Cat, bellcurve, Ann and many others said — the soap audience is much more clever than it's been given credit for. On the other hand, if these people think they're making a soap for some housewife in rural Montana, all the more WTF-ing should be expressed — how on Earth did they think that that housewife would be attracted to the Franco story?

If it's made for some artsy crème de la crème, again — did they really believe they'd attract them with this?

Who on Earth likes watching unconventional, indie-movie-esque stories on a genre firmly rooted and cemented in conventions, a soap, not a two-hour contained European D-rate, low budget sh!t? It doesn't work.

And to state the obvious: teens/younger audience don't like this either.

This shallow, trite and juvenile schtick Guza tried to serve to GH viewers would not work anywhere. Not even in that shallow cr*p sold as masterpiece called Avatar. It's really funny to see on surface what people try to supress. Which puts Guza in a basket, in that regard, right there with Tarantino and Cameron. In every other aspect, T & C are high up above in the unreachable heights Guza can't even touch.

[Sylph]

It's James Franco, "honouring" soaps, paying attention to "us" (Guza, Jill, Frons...) — how on Earth do can you ask that? We'll find the money, no matter how much it is. 'Cause this is hip, trendy, we're on the edge, right there on the new horizon of the "future of soaps"!

That's how they're thinking, I guess.

Kudos to JF for convincing such a big corporation to fund his and Carter's experiment. Hats off, really, for using them for your own purpose.

And get paid for it.

[JaneAusten]

Franco's a genius clearly. It wasn't until I read that interview in the WSJ with all his pseudo intellectual schtick that I really got it. This was his playground and Frons, Guza, and Phelps fell right into it. He's as arrogant as those 3 idiots but a heck of a lot smarter it seems.

As far as hip and trendy. TPTP are really stupid. Since when are soaps considered hip and trendy. Every damn article in the mainstream press talks about how dated they are. But this is going to change that right. This is no evolution to any new kind of soap story telling. Hell look at hown dumbed down primetime television is compared to 20 years ago yet this defines a new hip trend for soaps? Maybe if they want to move soaps to some niche indie like cable station that draws at the most a couple hundred thousand viewers. Days is the only one who seems to get it and that came out of survival.

I wish Franco would fall in love with Guza's story and get him away from GH. He can write Franco's one man show off Broadway. Of course Frons would probably end up rehiring Pratt then.

[Cyberologist]

yeah JaneA IT WAS HIS PLAYGROUND they say he came in with a crew he's working on two degrees simultanously in film and fiction writing also he will be co-directing some GH when he comes back

James Franco Announces His New Gallery Show, Done General Hospital Style!

-- Vulture

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2010/01/james_franco_announces_his_new.html#ixzz0bs5r6Dji

You called it actually he's a pretty smart guy he's an intellectual and I can really see it when he interviews for the A/E in some of his WSJ video interview he's an artist, actor, studying film and fiction writing...(now directing) so he's got a lot going on...maybe he will write a few eppys

http://online.wsj.com/public/page/0_0_WP_3001.html?currentPlayingLocation=1&currentlyPlayingCollection=Life%20%26%20Style&currentlyPlayingVideoId={43CA82D1-5CF8-48CF-A12A-897C5C641E12}

[dragonflies]

So JF will be back on GH in the Spring? I thought for sure this would be the end of it.

I thought for sure he'd die by Jason's hand, cause anyone who goes up against Sonny or Jason dies

[marceline]

It's interesting to read the comments on that article. They remind me of the reaction on here when it was announced that Franco was doing a soap. A whole lot of "WTF? Why?" and disdain at the people in the NYC art scene that he's allied himself with. Some think he's interesting and others think he's a carpetbagger secretly mocking them. A lot of those commenters appear to hold the Deitch Projects Gallery in the same low regard many of us have for GH and Guza.

I'm slowly beginning to realize that this is James Franco's world and we're just living in it.

[JaneAusten]

"One more layer will be added to this already layer-heavy experiment. If all goes according to plan, it will definitely be weird. But is it art?"

And still I don't get why he picked a soap other than he felt a dying genre would be thrilled to get him. SO he did a soap within a soap. Uhm ok literally above my head I guess. I'm too stupid to get it. I prefer Brando's "We are all actors even my dog is" take on acting versus this "performance art".

[marceline]

I honestly don't see it that way. Franco strikes me as a bit of a dilettante. He's done GH, hosted SNL, he's going to be on 30 Rock and now he's doing an art installation at what appears to be a fairly pretentious gallery. It's not like he has any real disrespect for soaps. It's all the same to him. He's in it for the experience.

In another day or two I'm sure we'll hear how that he's taking a shot at sportscasting on ESPN and making a rap album.

[JaneAusten]

No I guess not. And you're right. It's all part of this larger project.