The Broken Tower (film)

The Broken Tower is a 2011 American blackandwhite student film directed, written, produced, edited by and starring James Franco. The film was made by Franco as his Masters thesis for his MFA in filmmaking from New York University. The film is about American poet Hart Crane. Franco appears in the starring role as Crane along with Michael Shannon as one of Cranes lovers. The Broken Tower made its world premiere in April 2011 at Boston College. It was shown at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival LAFF in June and released on DVD in 2012. The film includes the recitation by Franco of several of Cranes poems both as voiceover additions to the film, as well as actual readings of several poems rendered by Franco as portraying Crane himself.

Franco thought of the idea for the film while reading Paul Marianis biography of Crane, also entitled The Broken Tower after the name of one of Cranes poems, on the set of his 2002 movie Sonny. Franco had publicly stated that the poets tragic life story attracted him to the material. The DVD release of the film includes a supplement which has an interview of Mariani with Franco.Its world premiere was held at Boston College on April 15, 2011. Franco chose to debut it at that venue since Mariani is a professor of English there. The Broken Tower was screened at the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival on June 20. It was among more than 200 feature films, short projects, and music videos from more thancountries to be selected. It was released on DVD March 2012. ........

Source: Wikipedia