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Last week, we shared our excitement for James Franco's next grand undertaking, the cinematic adaptation of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Set to premiere at Cannes in just a few days, we now have a first look at the feature with a brief but powerful trailer. Starring Franco, Tim Blake Nelson, Logan Marshall-Green, Danny McBride, Ahna O’Reilly, Beth Grant, and Jesse Heiman, the 1930-set southern drama will tell Faulkner's classic story about a Mississippi family's journey to bury their mother.

With the Cannes Film Festival but days away, I find myself increasingly more saddened that I am currently not packing my bags for France. But be that as it may, the films showing this year leave much to be excited for in the coming year. From Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive follow-up Only God Forgives to Jim Jarmusch's first feature in four years Only Lovers Left Alive, the films in competition are looking to be some of the most thrilling of 2013. Plus, we'll finally get a taste of James Franco's Wiliam Faulkner adaptation As I Lay Dying and alongside Roman Polanski's re-imaging of Venus in Furs, with many, many more. And although it's already premiered in the states last week, Baz Luhrmann's lavish variation on The Great Gatsby will be kicking off the festival on Wednesday night.

Earlier this week, we were pleased to report that iconic German director Wim Wenders was set to begin production on his latest film, Every Thing Will Be Fine, starting this summer with James Franco leading the picture. On that note, we spoke about the excitement of discovering your favorite filmmaker had something new underway—that childlike sense of thrill from only imagining what the feature could be. And when it comes to a younger set of directors, there are more than a plethora of people whose careers I'm quite excited for and anticipating to watch develop as they establish themselves in a new generation of cinematic masters. But in the last half-decade or so, there have been few filmmakers whose work has moved me as strongly as that of Norwegian director Joachim Trier. His two films Repirse and Oslo, August 31st are not only two of my favorite films of their respective years, but two of my most beloved films ever.

Discovering that your favorite director is heading into production on a new film holds excitement akin to waking up as a child on Christmas morning—for me at least. It's the dreamy time when you can only imagine what the film would be—before the inundation of set photos, stills, trailers, etc.—of course, it never disappoints in your mind.

Last week, we finally received the first image from James Franco's latest cinematic effort, his adaptation of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Set to debut at Cannes this month, the 1930-set Southern drama will star Franco alongside Jim Parrack, Danny McBride, Logan Marshall-Green, Richard Jenkins, and Tim Blake Nelson in the story about a Mississippi family's journey to bury their mother. And with little with only a few weeks until the film's highly-anticipated premiere, we now have a series of stills from the feature which highlight it's cast and writer/director. 

I may never be able to fathom how James Franco has the time and capability to take on every creative endeavor he does, but hey, I'm not complaining. And as one of his larger challenges over the past few years, the multi, multi-hyphenate has taken on William Faulkner's classic novel As I Lay Dying, adapting it for the screen. Announced last week, the film will be premiering at Cannes in a little over two weeks—so just in time, we now have a first look at the dark southern feature courtesy of EW.

Whether you love or hate him, James Franco has a lot of brain juice. The multi-hyphenate acts, curates art, loves school, occasionally sings (in spoof form) and pens a column for Huffington Post. He's also well-established in the fashion world, with directing gigs for denim label 7 for All Mankind and modeling stints for Gucci. His work with the latter as its menswear campaign star must have really moved him, because he recently produced a documentary for them that's set to debut at the TriBeCa Film Festival.

After months of speculation and close watch as to who would be heading to France come May, an official list has finally arrived. This morning, the line-up for this year's Cannes Film Festival was revealed and yes, we expected as much from some of the selection, but the roster isn't without a few very welcome surprises. As we've known for some time now, Baz Luhrmann's grand adpatation of The Great Gatsby will be providing a dramatic and lavish opening to the festival with begins May 15th.

Spring Break never really ends does it? Well, not for Harmony Korine's film which continues to stir up headlines well into its theatrical release. And central to Korine's Spring Breakers was Alien, the rapper/drug-dealer played by James Franco and although not a carbon copy of real-life(ish) rapper RiFF RaFF he was pretty close. When he "reviewed" the film, RiFF RaFF said that Franco should win a Grammy for his performance and that it was like he "bought the Riff Raff Halloween costume and decided to super-glue it to his body." Although when we spoke to Korine, he told us that he based Alien on people he knew growing up in the south, saying:

Based on true events, Ariel Vromen's murderous thriller The Iceman is set to premiere early next month. With a cast of Michael Shannon, Winona Ryder, Chris Evans, David Schwimmer, and James Franco, the film tells the story of Richard Kuklinski, the chilling and notorious contract killer who was arrested in 1986. After leading a double life—half loving and devoted father, half cold-blooded killer—Shannon, of course, takes on the titular the role with a frightening presence and the rest of the cast shines as well—namely an almost unrecognizable Chris Evans. Indiewire has an exclusive set of new photos from set, so take a peak and get acquainted with the film before it's May 3rd theatrical run.