James Franco is the first Academy Award nominee, and notably one of the first A-listers, to star in a microseries, embracing vertical scripted storytelling.
His series, titled “Love, Lies & Frank,” was produced by Knockout Shorts and is available to stream now on Shortical. The drama series is one of the first microseries produced under the SAG-AFTRA verticals agreement.
“Love, Lies & Frank” stars Franco as Jimmy Franks, the CEO of a high-powered ad agency, who must run his company as it faces criminal and supernatural underworld threats. The “127 Hours” star is joined by verticals stars Eric Guilmette and Neela Jolene.
Jolene joined the series as one of Jimmy’s ambitious employees, Daniella Hanson, who starts a forbidden romance with her boss’ stepbrother Cameron Frank (Guilmette).
“‘Love, Lies & Frank’ was a really fun collision of worlds,” said Matthew Ko, co-founder and CEO of Knockout Shorts. “It gave us the opportunity to play with the conventions of the genre, and subvert them just enough without losing sight of what audiences already love about these stories. The goal was always to make something that felt both familiar and completely unexpected.”
Franco is the latest of several Hollywood stars, who have embraced the microseries format. Taye Diggs was one of the earliest adopters of the format, starring in several and even creating his own microdramas app. In recent months, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jimmy Fallon, Kevin Hart and Issa Rae have all invested in the space by producing, starring and developing bite-sized content.
“Hollywood is beginning to embrace vertical storytelling in a meaningful way,” said Guy Shimoni, CEO of Shortical. “To see a talent like James Franco headlining an original microdrama is an important milestone for the industry. We at Shortical are proud to be setting the standard by bringing world-class talent, filmmakers, and stories to audiences in an entirely new way, proving that premium entertainment can thrive in a mobile-first world.”
“Love, Lies & Frank” was directed by Eric Wang Schwager, written by Melissa Lynn Moore and produced by Knockout Shorts with Peter Gold of Gold Films. While Shortical also produces fully AI-generated films, this series does not contain AI-generated performances or digital replicas, according to the company.
Franco has pulled back from acting following sexual misconduct allegations against him. In 2021, Franco and two of his former UCLA students reached a tentative deal to settle the lawsuit for $2.2 million settlement. Since 2019, the Golden Globe winner has only been credited in five acting projects, several of which were from international distributors.
