Franco is shirtless for a split second at :47Lainey Gossip posted this promo of James Franco’s upcoming guest spot on General Hospital, and it’s cheesy but awesome. Franco plays some kind of artist with a secret penchant for killing his subjects. His character is even called “Franco.” I’m having a hard time understanding exactly what’s going on here, but it’s like murderer vs. murderer. TVSquad sums it up nicely below and guesses what this promo hints at for the show. There are potential speculative General Hospital spoilers in the quoted text below. They also note that ABC is really promoting Franco’s guest spot and that they worked around his schedule.

TVSquad guesses that Franco’s appearance on General Hospital is part of a “project he’s doing with a filmmaker named Carter.” I think they may have the wrong idea, because from what I can tell that project is complete. They seem to be basing that assumption on a question that the Wall St. Journal asked of General Hospital executive producer Jill Farren Phelps. The WSJ asked Phelps “Are you aware of his project ‘Erasing [sic] James Franco’ with the artist Carter?” and she said she wasn’t, and indicated that Franco was professional and hardworking and seemed sincere in his desire to work on the soap. He’s doing just three Fridays of filming in a row to start as he goes to school the rest of the week for his MFA in writing at Columbia. He had to cram in sevens episodes worth of material on his first day, and will be on the show for two months.

“Erased James Franco” is an art project film in which Franco re-enacts some of his past roles, and from what I understand it was completed last year and first screened this spring. There are upcoming screenings, but they list the film as the same length, 63 minutes, as it was listed as this spring, with a completion date of 2008. Unless it’s a work in progress I think TVSquad is wrong and Franco won’t be using his General Hospital material at all. Either way, General Hospital seems thrilled with Franco’s guest spot. If he ends up using some lines from GH in an art film it’s not like he’s punking them and isn’t taking it seriously. It’s likely he’s earnestly trying to hone his craft, and he’s also studying filmmaking at school.

The James Franco experiment has begun on General Hospital. Actually, we have now learned that the movie actor, best known for Spider-Man and Milk and The Pineapple Express, has decided to do a two-month guest role on the ABC soap opera as part of a project he’s doing with a filmmaker named Carter.

Franco and Carter are making a documentary called Erased James Franco. His guest turn on 30 Rock may also be part of the movie. Nobody knows for certain.

One thing I do know for certain is that ABC is taking Franco’s appearance on GH very seriously. They’re working around his schedule, giving him a strangely interesting character to play, and promoting it like mad.

From the look of the promo, someone is going to die. Who? Maxie? Maybe. Sonny and Jason. Doubtful. There’ll be a lot of characters in danger, but who’s going to get it? Who do you think?

Franco’s character is even named Franco. He’s an artist and has a showing in a gallery, but there’s something else going on beneath the surface. He has an ulterior motive which may or may not mean that he’s the person stalking Jason.

They’ve been suggesting that’s the case, but it seems too obvious to me. I’m still holding on to the theory that he’s connected to the Cassadines, which makes more sense than a connection to Alcazar. The last serial killer was linked to Luis Alcazar.

[From TVSquad]

Franco has enthused about the sheer amount of material he had to learn for General Hospital and told NY Magazine that it was different working for a soap because there’s just one take and you have to memorize an immense amount of lines. “It was kind of mind-blowing. I’ve worked one day on it. It’s one day of a few. But I think we packed seven episodes of my material in. They gave me a script for the day that was as thick as a film script and that’s what we planned to shoot in a single day. No ad-libbing. If I needed it, they said they had a TelePrompTer, but the regulars didn’t use it so I didn’t want to use it, either.” He hinted that it wasn’t about just appearing on a soap, though, and “I’ve got other ideas for my participation in this soap opera beyond just being in this soap opera.” I wonder what he means exactly. Maybe that kind of vague statement is part of what led TVSquad to assume he has something up his sleeve. He also asked to play an artist.

Franco will also guest star on “30 Rock” this season as Jane Kraskinski’s love interest. You have to hand it to the guy, he definitely keeps us guessing and he seems to genuinely love acting.

Photos are from ABC via Soapnet

Via www.celebitchy.com