Tuesday
09Sep2008
Big Cast Developing for Allen Ginsberg Bio-Pic 'Howl'
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 at 4:38AM 
The Hollywood Reporter says that
James Franco
will get a lot of help in the new
Gus Van Sant production
Howl, based on the
obscenity trial of beat poet Allen Ginsberg. The film's title is the same as the famous epic
poem that helped shape the Beat Generation and prompted the trial in the first place.
Oscar nominees
David
Strathairn and
Alan Alda, along with
Mary-Louise
Parker,
Paul Rudd, and
Jeff Daniels
will play figures important to the case, while Franco will play the noted
counterculture icon.
Rob Epstein and
Jeffrey
Friedman have written the script and will direct, and we know now
that Howl will also have a graphic novel companion by Ginsberg
collaborator
Eric Drooker. Ginsberg's obscenity trial is a watershed moment for
American liberties, and Howl, reviled in some circles in the mid-50s for
its frank nature and language, is now one of the most celebrated works of its
kind.
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