James Franco has partnered with
director Travis Mathews to produce a film which recreates deleted gay
sex scenes from the 1980 film Cruising.
The psychological thriller was directed
by William Friedkin and stars Al Pacino as a NYPD officer working
undercover in the gay leather scene to catch a serial killer.
To secure an R rating, Friedkin deleted
40 minutes of footage from the original film.
Those 40 minutes consisted of
“absolutely graphic sexuality … that material showed the most
graphic homosexuality with Pacino watching, and with the intimation
that he may have been participating,” Friedkin is quoted as saying
in the 2005 book The Erotic Thriller in Contemporary Cinema.
After failing to secure the rights to
the film, Franco decided to recreate the deleted footage, which has
since been lost.
James Franco's Cruising stars
Franco as himself and Val Lauren (Help, True Love)
“interprets” Al Pacino's character, Mathews told gay glossy The
Advocate.
Mathews, who directed the gay art film
I Want Your Love, which includes graphic sex, said Franco
wanted “real gay sex” in Cruising.
“His people went looking for a
filmmaker who had filmed real gay sex, and I suspect someone who
would complement his vision. We talked about why we would be
interested in still looking at this film. We talked about his
interest in the film and his interest more broadly in so many
gay-themed stories and visionaries. He's worked with so many in
front of and behind the cameras over the years,” Mathews told
IndieWire.com.
A cut of the film will premiere next
month in New York during Fashion Week, with a feature-length version
to premiere at festivals next year.