Our favourite guy – James Franco is very busy guy these days, and we love it! Franco has edited two movies from unused footage from Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho (1991) that will show at the Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills. Yes, two movies, My Own Private River and Endless Idaho.
One project is a documentary about River Phoenix and the other is 12-hour look at the making of Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho. Of course, we managed to get more details about both projects, so check out the rest of this report.
According to the press release, after casting Franco in the award-winning film Milk (2008), Van Sant showed him the dailies and other footage that he had shot many years before for My Own Private Idaho, which starred River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves as street hustlers in Portland, Oregon.
Much of this material did not make it into the final cut, and so Franco decided to fashion it into two new films, riffing off the original title.
For Endless Idaho, Franco edited outtakes, deleted scenes, alternate takes, and behind-the-scenes footage from My Own Private Idaho into a 12-hour film.
Endless Idaho provides an unprecedented look into the workaday process of making a movie, from location scouting to repeated takes. Like many of the films of Andy Warhol, a major influence on Van Sant's own auteur style, it is a provocative, often riveting blend of documentary and fiction.
Interviews with actual hustlers who played secondary characters in My Own Private Idaho are intercut with shots of River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves improvising and refining their performances under the direction of Van Sant and his crew. The music for Endless Idaho was composed by Luke Paquin and Tim O'Keefe.
On the other had, My Own Private River, a portrait of the late actor River Phoenix, consists largely of shots of Phoenix's character, Mike, woven into a compelling portrait. Franco describes being mesmerized by Phoenix's “uninhibited acting” in this unreleased footage, and his edit captures the gifted actor at his most emotionally expressive and physically dynamic. The score is by Michael Stipe, who is an art school drop-out.
The exhibition will run from February 26 – April 9th. I hope you're satisfied with this news, and in the meanwhile – stay tuned!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA0U0otWuzE[/youtube]
My Own Private Idaho Trailer
