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With four movies in the works this year alone, Kate Mara is spending whatever free time she can get with her fiancé, Turn actor Jamie Bell.

“I think in our business, it’s always a little bit tricky to navigate things because it’s not like a normal job where you know where you’re going to be the next year, let alone the next day. You just don’t,” the actress, 34, tells People.

Mara and Bell have been dating since fall 2015, and People confirmed their engagement in January. The two previously costarred in 2015’s Fantastic Four, and were spotted...

Creative multitasker James Franco always has a toe in academics, and Wednesday evening will see the premiere screening of a feature film he led UCLA graduate students in producing. “The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards” plays Atlanta’s Rialto Center for The Arts, part of the Atlanta Film Festival, and TheWrap has an exclusive first look. The film is based on Robert Boswell’s short story collection and was executed by eight teams of Mfa students in a UCLA master class taught by Franco in 2012. A star-studded cast populates seven vignettes, with actors including Franco, Natalie Portman, Kristen Wiig, Matthew Modine,...

For all the glibness of his image-crafting, James Franco appears to be sincere in his regard for actual artistic production. And I say this not just in hopes of avoiding the title of Little Bitch 2. Uptown, in Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men (which continues through July 27), he offers a serious and accomplished performance as the itinerant farmhand George; is it his fault if he looks hot doing so? Downtown, as the director of a new play called The Long Shrift, he’s likewise humble, the opposite of showboating. Unfortunately, the opposite of showboating, in this case, is sinking.The play, by Robert Boswell, is halfway capsized to start with, thanks in part to its cargo of lumpy and overweight baggage. I am not referring to the actor Scott Haze, a handsome Franco mini-me (or maxi-me) with a $200 haircut and a gold-plated squint. He plays Richard, a 28-year-old from the...

New York — While doing eight performances a week on Broadway in the stirring revival of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men, the indefatigable James Franco has been juggling a rehearsal schedule for his stage directing debut with the Off-Broadway premiere of prolific novelist and playwright Robert Boswell's The Long Shrift. Why? That question is never answered during the anesthetizing 95 minutes of this emotionally bogus wannabe Sam Shepard effort, which basically teaches us that all men have the capacity for violence while all women are prone to lapses of hysterical finger-pointing and manipulation. Franco has recruited actor Scott

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Would an ex-con who was falsely convicted of rape and now sporting a swastika on his left pectoral ever wear Calvin Klein skivvies? (Granted, they are black Calvin Klein skivvies.) That's just one of the minor misfires in James Franco‘s staging of Robert Boswell's new play, “The Long Shrift,” which opened Sunday at off Broadway's Rattlestick Theater. More significant than Richard's underwear, however, is why his accuser, Beth (Ahna O'Reilly), would repeatedly show up at his house to beg for forgiveness, among other things, and ask Richard (Scott Haze) to their upcoming 10-year high school reunion. Also read: James Franco Goes Broadway.

Not content to be starring with Chris O’Dowd on Broadway in a revival of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice And Men, James Franco is simultaneously directing the world premiere of The Long Shrift for the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, a highly regarded off-off-Broadway company based in Greenwich Village. Novelist Robert Boswell’s play concerns the return home of a teenage boy after serving nine years for rape. Show is slated to run July 7-August 23 at the company’s home base at 224 Waverly Place. The company’s “special summer season” will continue with Phoenix, a love story in which Julia Stiles will star with James […]...

James Franco has taken another step in his quest to master every aspect of arts and entertainment not named Lindsay Lohan. The actor/writer/director/artist/teacher/Instagrammer/philanthropist/magician/ghost will make his stage directorial debut for New York's Rattlestick Playwrights Theater this summer. The play, Robert Boswell's “The Short Shrift,” is about “convict just released from jail who was accused of rape as a teenager,” according to The New York Times. See video: James Franco and Seth Rogen Are Going to Take Out Kim Jong-Un in ‘The Interview’ Trailer The show will run from July 7 to August 23 at the West Village theater.

For his next trick, James Franco reached into a raffle bin and pulled out “Direct a Play.”

The multi-hyphenate entertainer (and rabble rouser) will direct an Off-Broadway version of Robert Boswell’s The Long Shrift, about a man recently released from jail after being accused of rape as a teenager.

The production, part of the 20th anniversary season of the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, will star Scott Haze, Ahna O’Reilly, Brian Lally, Allie Gallerani and Ally Sheedy. Haze has appeared in several of Franco’s film projects, including the upcoming Child of God. The Long Shrift will run July 13 through Aug.

New York — James Franco, currently making his Broadway debut in Of Mice and Men, will add stage director to his artistically wide-ranging credits with the Off-Broadway production of Robert Boswell's The Long Shrift. Part of the 20th anniversary season of the Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, the drama concerns a man accused of rape as a teenager who is released from prison nine years later, when he finds his accuser suddenly back in his life. Theater Review 'Of Mice and Men' According to Boswell's website, the play will star Scott Haze, Ahna O'Reilly, Brian Lally, Allie Gallerani and Ally Sheedy.

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As part of his continuing quest to exert dominance over all cultural arenas, James Franco is adding "theater director" to his resume. According to the New York Times, Franco will direct a version of Robert Boswell's "The Long Shrift," about a man recently released from jail after being accused of rape as a teenager. The performances will take place from July 7 to August 23 as part of Rattlestick Playwrights Theater's 20th anniversary season. If it doesn't get good reviews, we are definitely going to be hearing about it on Instagram.

Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film selected Ryan Koo, The Summer of Flying Fish director Marcella Said (right ont pic above) and Jordana Spiro (who we sang the praises for with her short 2013 Sundance-preemed Skin) are among the twelve plus participants for the upcoming 2014 Feature Screenwriters Lab (which takes place one week before the actual festival).

At this point, the lab have probably easily broke the one hundred project count (with a good percentage of them panning out into an eventual feature film – see Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Andrew Dosunmu’s Mother of George, David Lowery’s Ain’t Them Bodies Saints and Andrew Renzi’s Franny as recent examples). The international class of January ’14 (read project descriptions and bios below) will be coached by no other than: Dustin Lance Black, Naomi Foner, John Gatins, Michael Goldenberg, Erik Jendresen, Patty Jenkins and Spaghetti Western fanboy and former lab attendee Quentin Tarantino.

CBS is taking the Twelve Mile Road with Tom Selleck. The network has given the green light to the telefilm from Fox TV Studios based on Robert Boswell's novel Mystery Ride: My Life. Richard Friedenberg (A River Runs Through It) penned the script, originally written as a feature for 20th Century Fox, and will direct the movie. Road centers on a rough divorced rancher (Selleck) who struggles to reconnect with his angst-ridden 15-year-old daughter, who returns to the farm for the first time in 10 years to spend the summer with him.