Hollywood loves a "cursed" project. For decades, Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian has sat on the shelf like a radioactive manuscript, labeled "unfilmable" by critics and directors alike. Then came James Franco. Around 2011, the actor-director decided he was the one to finally tame the beast. He didn't just want to talk about it; he actually went out and shot footage. It was a bold move that sparked a decade of rumors, legal headaches, and 25-minute test reels that most people will never see.
People still ask about it. Why did it stall? Was it actually good? Honestly, the story of how James Franco tried—and failed—to bring Judge Holden to the screen is almost as chaotic as the book itself.
The 20-Minute Test That Changed Everything
Most directors start with a pitch deck. Franco started with a camera and a crew. In 2011, he gathered a small team and filmed a substantial "test" sequence to prove to the rights holders and the industry that he could handle McCarthy's brutal, poetic tone.
This wasn't just a table read. It featured Scott Glenn, Luke Perry, and Mark Pellegrino. They shot in the dusty outskirts of the desert, trying to capture that specific, apocalyptic vibe of the 1850s Texas-Mexico border.
The footage exists. Some of it even leaked online in snippets over the years. It’s gritty. It’s violent. It looks like a fever dream. When word got out that Franco had actually put the "Kid" and "Toadvine" on film, the literary world had a collective heart attack. Some fans were thrilled that someone finally had the guts to try. Others were terrified that the guy from Pineapple Express was about to sanitize one of the greatest novels in American history.
The Problem With Modern Westerns
Capturing McCarthy isn't about horses and hats. It's about the language. It's about the "Judge."
James Franco’s version of Blood Meridian had to contend with the fact that the book doesn't really have a traditional plot. It's a sequence of atrocities described in some of the most beautiful English prose ever written. If you film the violence without the prose, you just have a snuff film. If you keep the prose but lose the grit, you have a stage play. Finding that middle ground is where almost everyone fails.
Scott Glenn and the Ghost of the Glanton Gang
One of the most fascinating parts of the Franco attempt was the casting. Scott Glenn—a veteran who knows his way around a Western—was brought in to play a key role. His presence gave the test footage a sense of legitimacy. You can find interviews where Glenn talks about the intensity of the shoot.
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It wasn't a "fun" set. They were trying to replicate the nihilism of the source material. Franco reportedly stayed behind the camera for the most part, focusing on the visual texture. He wanted it to look like a painting—specifically, the kind of painting that makes you want to look away but you can't.
But then, the lawyers showed up.
The Legal Wall and Scott Rudin
You can have the best footage in the world, but if you don't own the rights, you have a very expensive home movie. This is what happened to the James Franco Blood Meridian project.
The rights were held by producer Scott Rudin. Rudin is a titan in the industry, and he wasn't about to hand over the "Holy Grail" of Western literature to a guy who was simultaneously getting a PhD, hosting the Oscars, and acting in soap operas. There were reports that Franco hadn't secured the proper permissions before filming his test reel.
Basically, it was a "shoot first, ask questions later" situation.
- 2011: Franco shoots the test footage.
- 2012: Rumors swirl that a full feature is greenlit.
- 2016: A new attempt is announced with Franco directing and Russell Crowe possibly starring.
- Hours later: The project is dismantled due to rights issues.
It was a rollercoaster. At one point, Deadline reported that the movie was officially happening with a script by William Monahan (who wrote The Departed). Fans lost their minds. Then, almost as quickly as the news broke, the estate of Cormac McCarthy and the producers clarified that no, it wasn't happening. The "Blood Meridian James Franco" saga became a cautionary tale about the Hollywood rights machine.
Why Does This Book Scare Directors?
It’s the Judge. Judge Holden is an antagonist who stands about seven feet tall, is completely hairless, and speaks every language known to man while arguing that war is God.
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How do you cast that?
James Franco’s approach seemed to be focusing on the atmosphere of the Glanton Gang, but the Judge is a metaphysical problem as much as a casting one. Many think the book is unfilmable because the violence is so extreme that an "accurate" version would never be allowed in a multiplex. We're talking about the "tree of dead babies" and the scalping of entire villages.
Franco didn't shy away from the darkness in his other McCarthy adaptation, Child of God. If you've seen that movie, you know Franco is comfortable with the "unfilmable" and the grotesque. But Child of God is a small, intimate story about one necrophiliac in the woods. Blood Meridian is an epic. It requires a massive budget, hundreds of extras, and a level of technical precision that Franco’s indie-style "guerrilla" filmmaking struggled to match.
The Aftermath and John Hillcoat
After the Franco era of this project fizzled out, the torch eventually passed. As of 2024 and 2025, the news has shifted toward John Hillcoat. Hillcoat, who directed the film version of McCarthy’s The Road, is now the one officially tasked with the adaptation.
This effectively ended the Franco era of Blood Meridian.
The test footage Franco shot now serves as a historical curiosity. It’s a "what if" moment in cinema. It shows that Franco had a vision for the book that was much more visceral than the polished, sweeping epics most people imagined. It was dirty. It was messy. It felt like it was shot in the 1850s on a camera that shouldn't have existed then.
Was Franco the Right Choice?
It’s a divisive question. Critics often felt Franco was spread too thin during this period of his life. He was doing everything at once, and some felt a masterpiece like Blood Meridian required 100% of a director's soul.
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However, his passion for McCarthy was real. You can't watch the test footage and not see the reverence for the text. He wasn't trying to make a blockbuster; he was trying to make art. Whether that art would have been "good" is something we'll never truly know, as the full feature was never completed.
What We Can Learn From the Failed Adaptation
The struggle to adapt this book tells us a lot about the current state of movies. We live in an era of franchises and safe bets. Blood Meridian is the opposite of a safe bet. It is a story where everyone is a villain, there is no redemption, and the ending is a terrifying enigma.
James Franco’s attempt failed because of the intersection of three things:
- Rights Management: You can't outrun the lawyers.
- Scale: The jump from indie test footage to a $50 million epic is massive.
- Tone: Hollywood is terrified of "The Judge."
If you’re a fan of the book, the Franco "episodes" are a fascinating rabbit hole. They represent the closest we’ve ever come to seeing the Glanton Gang on screen until the current Hillcoat project actually hits theaters.
Actionable Insights for Fans and Filmmakers
If you're still tracking the progress of a Blood Meridian film, here is how you should approach the news:
- Watch Child of God: If you want to see how Franco handles McCarthy’s "unfilmable" prose, this is your best reference point. It gives you a window into the aesthetic he would have used for the Judge.
- Track the Hillcoat Project: Move your focus to New Regency and John Hillcoat. They have the official backing of the McCarthy estate (which became even more protective after Cormac’s passing in 2023).
- Read the Script: The William Monahan script that was briefly attached to the Franco/Crowe version sometimes circulates in screenwriting circles. It’s a masterclass in how to condense 300 pages of carnage into a two-hour structure.
- Ignore the "Leaked Trailer" Videos: Most of what you see on YouTube labeled as a "Blood Meridian Trailer" is fan-made using clips from The Revenant, Brimstone, or Franco’s old test footage. Real footage is extremely rare and usually exists in low-resolution snippets.
The James Franco chapter of this story is over, but it paved the way for the conversation we're having now. It proved that there is a hunger for this story, no matter how dark it gets.