MovieChat Forums > My Own Private River (2012) Discussion > So, James Franco made this film for hims...

So, James Franco made this film for himself?

posted 11 years ago by Koyaanisqatsi4
2 replies | jump to latest

I mean, despite the fact that this October will mark the 20th anniversary of the death of River Phoenix, there are still many people who remember him and who consider that in all these years he has no had a truly tribute to his memory and career as an actor.

If he had lived longer, perhaps he would have been better -and more famous and remembered- than any other actors of his generation like Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise or Johnny Depp, but we won't ever know it...

Almost 20 years after he passed, today in 2013 we discover that James Franco has made a film about his performance in "My Own Private Idaho", with most of the footage (inedit) only of River, and more surprising, there are two versions:

- A 12 hour film, and another one with the same length as "MOPI".

Everyone who love River want to keep remembering him and see something so incredible as this film (River's performance in My Own Private Idaho is my favourite and, in my opinion his best one, he deserved an Oscar Nomination for Best Actor for that role), and suddenly, James Franco says that he has no plans to release My Own Private River on DVD in the near future.

There are a couple of clips on youtube of River footage of "MOPI" (I'm not sure if those videos belong to the deleted scenes that are available in the Special Edition of "MOPI" or not, but anyway, is amazing to see only footage of River, alone, in silence...

We will ever see any of these two versions of MY OWN PRIVATE RIVER?

That's the question to answer.

[–] MWallace77 11 years ago

Joaquin and River's mother say no. If money was to be made, I would think River's mother would say, yes.

[–] xmuscularghandix 10 years ago

For Art. He also has said that it wasn't meant to be it's own individual entity because he wants it to in no way compete with the original film, which he obviously loves and has been deeply inspired by.

My main question is, if it consists entirely of footage that was shot for My Own Private Idaho, shouldn't this new final project also be property of New Line Cinema? What if this was something that appears as a "Bonus Feature" on future releases of the film?