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One to Watch: Dave Franco
Written by . Published: August 19 2011
Watch your
back, James Franco!
The ever-busy actor, director, screenwriter,
author, painter, documentarian, performance artist, PhD
candidate, intermittent "General Hospital" visitor, and Oscar
nominee for 127 Hours may soon find himself competing
for roles with his younger brother, up-and-coming actor Dave Franco.
Dave's first
major film role comes this weekend in the remake of the beloved
'80s vampire
flick Fright Night, where he plays the high school buddy
of lead Anton Yelchin. It's a fairly standard teen jock
bully role, but Dave has an on-screen charisma that clearly signals
he's headed for bigger things. And remember, even James
started out in the low-brow teen comedy Whatever It Takes.
Dave has
already appeared in small roles in the films Greenberg and Charlie St. Cloud, and in TV
shows including "Scrubs," "Greek" and "Privileged" (where he played
the dorky love interest of Lucy Hale,
now the star of "Pretty Little Liars"). And he starred with Emma Roberts in the music
video for the song "Go Outside" by Cults,
which paid homage to the Jean-Luc Godard classic Contempt, starring Brigitte Bardot. Not to mention
all his Funny or Die videos, including this recent NSFW one with his Fright
Night co-star Christopher Mintz-Plasse.
Next up for
Dave: a role as a drug-dealing high school student in the
big-screen version of 21 Jump Street, starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, which is due out
next March. Plus he'll be in the indie The Broken Tower,
which his big bro James directs and stars in as tortured
20th-century American poet Hart Crane. Dave plays
the younger version of Crane in the film, shot in black-and-white,
which will screen at the Toronto International Film Festival next
month.
Of course, Dave
has a long way to go to catch up with his über-prolific brother. But
we have a feeling Dave won't be in James' shadow for much
longer.
(Image via
VPC/WENN)
- Andre Chautard, YH Staff