Meloni and Franco Spend 'Nights in Rodanthe'

Nope, not the new Brokeback

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Wednesday, May 30th 2007 at 6:23 AM

Since the success of the Spider-Man franchise James Franco has gotten top billing on three films. These three films and their RottenTomatoes score look like this:

• Flyboys (33%)
• Annapolis (10%)
• Tristan & Isolde (32%)

Those aren't pretty numbers and it isn't as if Franco is a fantastic supporting actor. Granted, the only interesting piece of Spider-Man 3 was the storyline between Harry and Peter, but before that it was the worst part of the franchise and SM3's 61% rating at RottenTomatoes isn't exactly a glowing one.

So, I ask you, why does James Franco continue to get cast in films? Has anyone ever said how great he was in _________ (fill in the blank)? If something good has been said I haven't read it. To my knowledge he is a pretty face and a smallish name in the grand scheme of things.

However you look at it, Franco, along with Christopher Meloni, has just joined the cast of Nights in Rodanthe, the new romatic drama based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name. We also learn that George Wolfe (who?) is aboard to direct the film which top-lines Diane Lane and Richard Gere.

The film sees a doctor (Gere) stop at an inn in North Carolina while traveling to reconcile with his estranged son. At the beach town, the doctor has a life-changing romance with an unhappily married woman (Lane). Ken Hixon and Ann Peacock worked on the screenplay.

Meloni is playing the role of Lane's husband, while Franco plays Gere's estranged son.