James Franco directing The Adderall Diaries

James Franco

James Franco has bought the adaptation rights to Stephen Elliot’s dark, murder-themed novel The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir Of Moods, Masochism And Murder .

The actor, whose next film 127 Hours will close this year’s BFI London Film Festival, is intending to write, produce, direct and possibly star in the new movie.

The Adderall Diaries is a non-fiction tome that follows author Stephen Elliot’s investigation into the lives of two men. The first, Hans Reiser, is accused of killing his wife, though professes his innocence. The second, Sean Sturgeon, is the lover of Reiser’s deceased wife, and suddenly confesses to eight unrelated murders.

Gripped by writers’ block and dependent on Adderall, Elliot becomes obsessed with Sturgeon, and begins to wonder what would make an innocent man confess to murders he probably didn’t commit.

Murky underground stuff, but suitably high brow for Franco, who’s a famous Hollywood brainbox. Sounds like he got some tips from Gus Van Sant while working on Milk . One thing’s for sure: whatever Franco does with Adderall , it should prove fascinating.

Josh Winning has worn a lot of hats over the years. Contributing Editor at Total Film, writer for SFX, and senior film writer at the Radio Times. Josh has also penned a novel about mysteries and monsters, is the co-host of a movie podcast, and has a library of pretty phenomenal stories from visiting some of the biggest TV and film sets in the world. He would also like you to know that he "lives for cat videos..." Don't we all, Josh. Don't we all.