James Franco movies date back to 1999—when he debuted in the Drew Barrymore vehicle, Never Been Kissed, the first movie from Barrymore’s then-new Flower Films production company.
When you think of James Franco movies, you might think of the stoner classic Pineapple Express, the Oscar-nominated 127 Hours, his turn as Harry Osborn in the Spider-Man franchise, the celebrity spoof-slash-apocalypse movie This is the End (in which Franco, Seth Rogen, and a like coterie of stars play themselves) or even the more recent The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which spawned the “First Time” meme of recent internet renown.
But there’s a definite drop-off in the amount of work Franco has put out since 2018, and there’s a reason for that. On Jan. 11, 2018, the Los Angeles Times ran a story that laid it out starkly in the headline: “Five women accuse actor James Franco of inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior.”
The story went on to document the allegations of five different women, four of them students at a school Franco started for aspiring film actors and filmmakers, and one who described Franco as her “mentor.”
After settling a lawsuit brought by two of his accusers, Variety reports that Franco acknowledged via a 2021 interview on SiriuxXM’s “The Jess Cagle” podcast, that he “took a pause” post-lawsuit. But there are indications that the “pause” wasn’t entirely of his making.
It seemed no one wanted to work with the actor after the allegations came to light. Franco dropped out from the Critic’s Choice Awards that year, despite winning best actor in a comedy film for his leading role in The Disaster Artist. He was also digitally removed from Vanity Fair’s Hollywood issue. A few months later, Franco’s ex-costar on Freaks and Geeks, Busy Phillips, claimed that the star had physically assaulted her while filming the TV show.
Four years passed with Franco staying out of the spotlight. Then, a July 2022 Entertainment Weekly story announced, “James Franco is set to return to the big screen … Franco, who stepped away from acting after multiple women accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior in 2018, will star in director Bille August’s coming-of-age period film Me, You.”
However, the IMDb page for the movie states the movie is still in pre-production and does not list Franco among the cast members.
He may yet make a comeback with several other movies either listed as being in post-production or completed but not yet released on IMDb, including Alina of Cuba: La Hija Rebelde, in which he stars as Fidel Castro, Kill the Czar, and The Policeman. The Policeman is currently under investigation by SAG-AFTRA due to allegations of inappropriate behavior by another actor, Vincent Gallo.
Franco also completed The Long Home, which he both directed and stars in, back in 2017—but the movie has yet to be released as of 2024, and is believed to have been shelved.
Here’s what he’s been involved with to date.
James Franco movies (as an actor)
Brace yourself; it’s a big list.
The ’90s
- Never Been Kissed (1999)
2000-2010
- Whatever It Takes (2000)
- If Tomorrow Comes (2000)
- Mean People Suck (2001)
- Spider-Man (2002)
- Deuces Wild (2002)
- Mother Ghost (2002)
- Sonny (2002)
- City by the Sea (2002)
- The Company (2003)
- Spider-Man 2 (2004)
- The Ape (2005)
- The Great Raid (2005)
- Fool’s Gold (2005)
- Tristan & Isolde (2006)
- Annapolis (2006)
- The Wicker Man (2006)
- Flyboys (2006)
- The Dead Girl (2006)
- The Holiday (2006)
- An American Crime (2007)
- Knocked Up (2007)
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- Good Time Max (2007)
- In the Valley of Elah (2007)
- Camille (2008)
- Pineapple Express (2008)
- Nights in Rodanthe (2008)
- Milk (2008)
- Oo (2009)
2010-2018
- Howl (2010)
- Date Night (2010)
- Shadows and Lies (2010)
- Eat Pray Love (2010)
- 127 Hours (2010)
- Love & Distrust (2010)
- The Green Hornet (2011)
- Your Highness (2011)
- The Broken Tower (2011)
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
- Sal (2011)
- About Cherry (2012)
- Maladies (2012)
- The Iceman (2012)
- Spring Breakers (2012)
- The Letter (2012)
- The Color of Time (aka Tar) (2012)
- Interior. Leather Bar. (2013)
- Lovelace (2013)
- Oz the Great and Powerful (2013)
- As I Lay Dying (2013)
- This Is the End (2013)
- Palo Alto (2013)
- Child of God (2013)
- Third Person (2013)
- Homefront (2013)
- Veronica Mars (2014)
- Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
- Good People (2014)
- The Sound and the Fury (2014)
- The Interview (2014)
- Don Quixote: The Ingenious Gentleman of La Mancha (2015)
- True Story (2015)
- Yosemite (2015)
- I Am Michael (2015)
- Queen of the Desert (2015)
- Every Thing Will Be Fine (2015)
- Wild Horses (2015)
- The Heyday of the Insensitive Bastards (2015)
- The Adderall Diaries (2015)
- The Little Prince (2015)
- Memoria (2015)
- The Night Before (2015)
- Goat (2016)
- Sausage Party (2016)
- King Cobra (2016)
- Burn Country (2016)
- The Caged Pillows (2016)
- In Dubious Battle (2016)
- Why Him? (2016)
- The Labyrinth (2017)
- The Institute (2017)
- Actors Anonymous (2017)
- The Show (2017)
- The Disaster Artist (2017)
- Alien: Covenant – Prologue: Last Supper (2017)
- Alien: Covenant (2017)
- Don’t Come Back from the Moon (2017)
- The Vault (2017)
- The Mad Whale (2017)
- Future World (2018)
- Kin (2018)
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)
- The Pretenders (2018)
2018-present
- Zeroville (2019)
- Arctic Dogs (2019)
And, of course, Franco’s not just an actor, but a director as well. Here’s what he’s been up to on the other side of the camera.
James Franco movies (as a director)
- The Ape (2005)
- Fool’s Gold (2005)
- Good Time Max (2007)
- The Feast of Stephen (2009)
- Saturday Night (2010)
- The Broken Tower (2011)
- Sal (2011)
- My Own Private River (2012)
- Interior. Leather Bar. (2013)
- As I Lay Dying (2013)
- Child of God (2013)
- The Sound and the Fury (2014)
- In Dubious Battle (2016)
- The Institute (2017)
- The Disaster Artist (2017)
- Future World (2018)
- The Pretenders (2018)
- Zeroville (2019)
It remains to be seen if and when more additions to the list of James Franco movies will come.
Editor’s note: This article is regularly updated for relevance.
The internet is chaotic—but we’ll break it down for you in one daily email.
Sign up for the Daily Dot’s web_crawlr newsletter here.
And get the best (and worst) of the internet straight into your inbox.