Photo: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images/2011 Getty Images
James Franco is so overscheduled this year that he had to drop out of Noah Baumbach’s next film, but maybe his semi-abandonment of Twitter has freed up a little spare time? Deadline reports that Franco has joined the cast of The Stare, which will star Winona Ryder as a New York playwright driven mad by paranoid visions as she prepares for her new production (let’s hope that Ryder took copious notes when her co-star Natalie Portman had that same character arc in Black Swan). Set to shoot next month, the movie will be directed by Jay Anania, who served as Franco’s teacher at NYU’s film school. Consider this extra credit. [Deadline]