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Oh, Franco, Franco, Franco. Just when we thought we'd found something to commend you for, you go and do this. Yes, it was merely a week ago that we were surprised to find ourselves praising The Franco for his actually noble effort to crowd-source $500,000 for a three-film project. But now he's up and bailed on another auteur project, on which $500,000 had already been spent.

Mike Fleming Jr. of Deadline reports that James Franco has dropped out of Garden of Last Days, the film he was set to both direct and star in—and for which production was supposed to begin in less than two weeks. That doesn't look too good on The Franco, especially considering the film, budgeted at $3 million, had already blown one-sixth of its budget. Fleming reports that he's "hearing" that "that Franco's exit had to do with a disagreement with financier Millennium over the crew he wanted to hire." Which pretty much makes it sound like Franco (Franco, Franco, Franco) is not getting his way, and so he's going away. Perhaps he should just stick to crowd-funding movies where he can call all the shots. Perhaps he should just go back to grad school.

So, alas, this means we will never get to see a turn by Khaleesi—excuse us—Emilia Clarke as a stripper in the adaptation of the Andre Dubus III book that tells various stories in Florida before 9/11. Gerard Butler had been signed on to produce. Maybe the film could have been a disaster. Maybe Franco's last-minute decision saved him ridicule down the road. Or maybe this could have been the moment we decided to hail Franco as the genius he wants us to think he is. We'll never know, will we?

Meanwhile, we wonder if anyone's found Franco to serve him his defamation lawsuit yet.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.