I’m starting to feel my gayness is rather inadequate compared to James Franco’s, and he doesn’t even sleep with men! Last month rumours circulated that Franco was planning to make a ‘Homo-Sex-Art-Film’ with director Travis Mathews. Now more details of that film have emerged, and it turns out it’s a homage to the controversial 1980 Al Pacino movie, Cruising.

William Friedkin’s film sparked controversy even before it was shot, and protesters attempted to disrupt filming on what they saw as a movie that would paint gay people as S&M obsessed perverts one step away from being psychopathic serial murderers. The film is slightly more complex than that (although it’s certainly not a great promo for being gay, and had to have a disclaimer added to the beginning saying it wasn’t suggesting all homosexuals were depraved), with hints that as Pacino’s cop investigates the S&M underworld investigating a serial killer, he gets increasingly drawn into it.

To get a cinema release, Friedkin is said to have had to cut 40 minutes of more graphic footage from Cruising, which apparently depicts just how deep Pacino’s character went into the underbelly of the gay S&M world. Franco’s collaboration with Travis Mathews is an imagined recreation of that lost footage.

Director Travis Mathews

Initially Franco wanted to update Cruising, but he couldn’t secure the remake rights. Instead he sought out a director who had previously filmed real gay sex, to help him make a homage. Mathews, who featured explicit sex scenes in his gay drama I Want Your Love, fitted the bill. After some initial discussions, filming quickly followed and Mathews turned over an initial cut to Franco after just two months. The film, ‘James Franco’s Cruising’, features both James and Mathews and looks at both the lost 40 minutes of Cruising, as well as try to look at how people see Franco as a star figure.

“[James] knew he wanted real gay sex in it,” Mathews tells Indiewire. “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 visionairies. He’s worked with so many in front of and behind the cameras over the years.”
Mathews (left) and Franco both appear in the movie, a fictional re-creation of 40 minutes which was originally ut from the film to appease the MPAA and secure an R rating.

“[Friedkin] cut the film down at his own expense,” Mathews said. “Recently, when he was getting ready to do an anniversary edition, Warner Bros. told him that the footage was destroyed. It’s possible those 40 minutes implicate Pacino’s character in the gay S&M culture. That was the place we started from as a launching point: James Franco’s version of those lost 40 minutes.”

Mathews believes that while Cruising is still vilified by many as a stain on LGBT-themed cinema , it’s time for a bit of a re-evaluation. He says “The interesting thing about that movie is it gets short-circuited a bit too quickly in people’s eyes. If you forget about the whole murder mystery backstory and you just look at the bar scenes, I think it’s quite an insightful, important document of an important subculture, right before AIDS hits, in 1979 New York.”

Franco’s fascination with gay male culture seems pretty profound. He’s played gays in films like Milk and Howl, directed the gay bio-pics The Broken Tower (about poet Hart Crane) and Sal (about actor Sal Mineo), released the queer short The Feast of Stephen, and even appeared in drag for the cover of Candy magazine. Where the interest comes from isn’t clear, but it’s something he doesn’t seem to want to give up on.

Mathews hopes to debut the finished cut of ‘James Franco’s Cruising’ early in 2013. An installation version of the footage will play at a group show in a gallery beginning September 12.