Talk about poor timing.
The same week James Franco, 35, allegedly flirted with tourist Lucy Clode, 17, via Instagram, the first trailer for his drama Palo Alto debuted on Yahoo Movies. The film, based on Franco's book of short stories and directed by Gia Coppola, tells the story of a group of high school students in California.
Franco plays a high school soccer coach who hooks up one of his teen players (Emma Roberts). In one scene, Franco's character tells her, "I'm older and I know that there aren't a lot of good things around."
Palo Alto received an R-rating for strong sexual content, drug and alcohol use and pervasive language. It stars Keegan Allen, Val Kilmer, Christian Madsen, Chris Messina and Natt Wolf. Palo Alto will be shown at Tribeca Film Festival on Apr. 24 and at the San Francisco International Film Festival on May 3.
Franco published his collection of short stories in 2010. He followed up that 224-page debut with a number of other works. His book of poetry, Directing Herbert White, hit shelves in March 2014.
"The book Palo Alto is a set of connected stories, so you get much more of the exterior behavior. You get more of a sense of narrative," he recently told Los Angeles Magazine. "In the poems, although you get place and character, it's a much more inward-looking presentation of those characters."