James Franco, who recently hosted Saturday Night Live and appeared in a story-arc on the long-running daytime drama General Hospital, was on hand at a private screening in NYC for his new film Howl. In Howl, Franco plays the famed beat poet Allen Ginsberg and, from what I’m hearing, gives an Oscar-worthy performance. Buzz about Franco‘s performance in Howl is even spreading amongst the Hollywood crowd because celebs themselves (Michael Stipe, Zachary Quinto, Brooke Shields, Dustin Lance Black, Björk and more) were clamoring to get into this special screening:

James Franco has been many things lately: NYU student, artist, soap opera star. So it’s not entirely surprising that the hunky actor managed to transform himself, with a pair of black-frame glasses and an adopted haute-Jersey accent, into outspoken twentieth-century poet Allen Ginsberg. Franco’s latest film, Howl, draws on actual interviews and smoky back-room readings and partly reenacts Ginsberg’s 1957 obscenity court case to paint a portrait of the Beat-era bard. Last night at the Crosby Street Hotel, a Cinema Society audience got an early look at the new movie and at Franco, who stood in the packed theater throughout the whole thing. Clearly, he’s got a thing for poets on screen: Among his recent projects is a short film based on the work of Anthony Hecht, and, in a few days, one inspired by Frank Bidart’s uncompromising poetry will (like Howl) play at Utah’s Sundance Film Festival. “I think poems work very well as films,” Franco insisted, adding that he’d had Ginsberg’s voice (and Howl, Ginsberg’s best-known work) in his head since he was about 16. “I’ve listened to dozens and dozens of recordings of him, over the years, reading that poem,” he said. “I’d listen to them in my headphones walking around New York.” Franco wasn’t the only one feeling the Beat. Björk and Matthew Barney lingered well into the after-party, and Alicia Silverstone revealed that free verse also plays a regular role in her life: “My husband has me read Charles Bukowski poems to him,” she said. “It amuses him.”

As you may recall, we saw photos of Franco on the NYC set of Howl last March and as far as looks go, Franco wears Ginsberg‘s chunky glasses very well … he looks very much the part. I think we learned in Milk that Franco has the acting chops to deliver an Oscar-worthy performance … I am SO excited for this film. While I am a huge Jack Kerouac fan, I have a huge appreciation for Ginsberg and his work. I’m certain this film will do well at the film festivals which means, hopefully, it’ll be in theaters where we normal people can see it soon.

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