James Franco to play US Navy sailor in ‘Hey Joe’

James Franco
| Photo Credit: AP

James Franco is set to play a US Navy sailor posted in the post-World War II Naples, where he fathers a child, in Hey Joe. The Variety reported that the Italian drama is directed by Claudio Giovannesi (Gomorrah TV series, Piranhas). The shooting of the film is currently underway.

Franco has been taking roles outside the US following a now-settled 2019 lawsuit that alleged that he sexually exploited young women who took his acting class. In the film, Franco plays a 23-year-old American sailor who lands in Naples, which has been destroyed by bombing. Barry falls in love with a local girl called Lucia.

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A couple of years later, Dean is forced to leave Lucia, alone and pregnant, to go back to New Jersey. He eventually returns to Naples to find the woman and her son, Enzo, but the city has changed a lot and Dean must navigate these challenges leading up to a surprise finale, wrote Variety.

Giovannesi and Neapolitan writer Maurizio Braucci have written the screenplay of Hey Joe. Francesco Di Napoli, Giulia Ercolini, Aniello Arena and Francesca Montuori are other members of the cast.