Watch: James Franco Goes 'Cruising'

Another year, another gay-themed film starring James Franco. On the heels of Howl, Milk, Sal, and The Broken Tower comes the award-winning actor's collaboration with acclaimed filmmaker Travis Mathews, who made a splash on the festival circuit this year with his dazzling and exceedingly explicit I Want Your Love, which honors director William Friedkin's 1980 drama Cruising, a controversial depiction of New York's S/M community which was picketed by outraged gay people while filming on location. According to a legend that sprung up around the movie, 40 minutes of gay S&M footage was rumored to be cut and destroyed to avoid an X rating. With Interior. Leather Bar Mathews and Franco imagine that lost footage.

The official plot synopsis for the film, which will screen at next month's Sundance Film Festival, reads: "Amid the backdrop of a frenzied film set actor Val Lauren reluctantly agrees to take the lead in the film. Val is repeatedly forced to negotiate his boundaries during scenes on and "off camera," as unsimulated gay sex happens around him. The film itself is constructed as a play with boundaries remaining queer in subject and form. As much a film about filmmaking as it is about an exploration of sexual and creative freedom, Interior. Leather Bar. defies easy categorization."

Watch the trailer below.