Lester Ballard is a child of God, much like yourself.
He is also the focus of the first teaser for James Franco‘s CHILD OF GOD. This is the first literary piece that the actor/director is taking on, the other is William Faulkner’s AS I LAY DYING which has an intriguing cast including Danny McBride and Tim Blake Nelson.
Cormac McCarthy‘s novel centers on the character of Lester Ballard but is told from three different perspectives. Franco is certainly up for the job since he earned a Doctorate of English at Yale and has taught classes at several other prestigious institutions. The guy knows his craft. He’s also known to always have books on him as said by other collegues. So I don’t doubt that he will bring something worthwhile to the material.
The teaser shows actor Scott Haze looking a little intimidating while Tim Blake Nelson narrates a couple of lines from the novel. This ought to be a huge task for Haze who hasn’t been in anything notable though the actor does have a theater background. I think people might be quick to dismiss Franco because of his antics so to speak but I wouldn’t hold that against him.
A dispossessed, violent man who’s life is a disastrous attempt to exist outside the social order. Successively deprived of parents and homes and with few other ties, Ballard descends literally and figuratively to the level of a cave dweller as he falls deeper into crime and degradation.