Actor James Franco to Teach at USC Next Spring
He's been stuck under a rock for 127 hours, run amongst the apes through the city of San Francisco and even taken on Spider-Man; but in actor James Franco's next adventure he will swap out his duties on screen to teach future generations of filmmakers the craft of working behind the scenes.
Franco is set to teach a film production class at USC next spring with his business partner Vince Jolivette, according to an email sent to students from the School of Cinematic Arts. The eight-student course will require the students to each direct a short film of no more than ten minutes. Eventually, the eight short films will be combined into one longer film.
The theme of the class is "Labyrinth" and the films will serve as original short stories exploring "the unknown, the unexplained and the unimaginable," according to the email.
"In the industry today, original material is lacking in terms of story and content for films," said USC film school junior Alex Villarette." And what better way to discover new stuff than to directly tap into the source -- film students."
Students interested in taking the class must submit a reel of their previous work for evaluation in order to be selected for the class.
"I think the directors that get chosen for this class are extremely lucky to work with someone high-profile," said Villarette.
And high-profile certainly describes the multi-talented actor. Students both in the film school as well as those outside of the program are eagerly awaiting the newest professor's arrival.
"I feel suddenly compelled to study film," said USC junior Katie Kelsh.
Franco has tapped into a wide variety of careers including actor, host, novelist, poet and even soap opera star. But stepping into the role of professor is not anything new for the 34-year-old artist.
Franco previously taught a class at New York University about turning poetry into film. Also on his track of academia, he has attended various schools including Yale University, Columbia University and NYU.
Franco made headlines earlier this year at USC after the release of his short lived web series "Undergrads." The series centered on the lives of four undergraduate students and caused an uproar after its three-minute trailer featured students hive-fiving while taking shots, a compilation of party scenes and a variety of offensive remarks including boys calling girls fat.
After all of the negative attention the trailer received, the series was cancelled indefinitely and all content from the show's website was taken down.
That's so awesome of the talented Professor Franco!!