James Franco Plays Gay In Hart Crane Biopic 'The Broken Tower'

Oh, James Franco. You do interesting work, you really do. Some people think that you do too much, that you're a bit of a show off, that you must take yourself too seriously if you're taking on all of these highbrow projects. Not us, though. We have faith.

See, you like to play queers, weirdoes and freaks. You played Allen Ginsburg in Howl! You were in Milk! You did a weird art project with Terrence Koh! And now you're playing Hart Crane, the gay poet who wrote a long, lovely ode to The Brooklyn Bridge and eventually jumped to his death in the Gulf of Mexico from the deck of a boat.

The Franco-directed and Franco-starring film, The Broken Tower, is named for a poem that Crane wrote during his only known heterosexual relationship--with a pal's ex-wife--but supposedly contains plenty of man-on-man action. Those who've seen it already say there's making out, there's the boning of a character played by Michael Shannon, there's cruising (James on his lil brother Dave, apparently), there's even a Franco-administered blowjob. Curious? Check out the trailer (and our takes on it) below, and find the movie on your local cable provider--it's showing on Video on Demand.

Jerry Portwood: Ugh. More Franco voiceover? This seems like a dreadful repeat of Howl, which I don't think I can go through again. And then B&W reminds me of Francis Ford Coppola's awful Tetro (starring Vincent Gallo). This BETTER have the promised sex to make up for the already pretentious tone.

Jon Roth: This teaser is too short for a real comment, but I'll say this: If anyone can bring back the mustache, it's James Franco. Here's hoping...

Max Berlinger: I was just thinking last night that Shame's big redeeming feature was the implicit incest. There needs to be more incest in movies... I'm a child who grew up on Flowers in the Attic, dammit. I'm glad to hear there's a creepy James vs. Dave moment.

Jordan Shavarebi: I sort of get the feeling that Franco i taking a 9th grade English class, and that, for a final project, he's been asked to create a short biopic about a poet he admires. But he's hot, so it's cool. Also: it's 2012. Is an openly gay actor ever going to be asked to play an openly gay character? Before the world ends? People?