James Franco’s latest role will see him portray an infamous pickup artist/ultimate dickhead, in a film adaptation of Neil Strauss’ memoir-slash-how to guide The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists.
The book follows Strauss, a journalist, who comes across pickup artists when writing an article. These men ‘professionally’ seduce women, with super hot techniques like negging – insulting someone – and kinoing – touching a woman despite having no consent to do so. Strauss ended up joining one of their bootcamps, where he met Mystery, Franco’s character.
“Nearly every person I meet has a strong opinion on The Game, whether they’ve read it or not,” said Strauss, the author of other books like The Truth and The Dirt. “For some, it changed their lives and led to marriage and children. For others, it is the one of the most terrifying things to ever happen to the dating world. For me, it is both, but I’m forever grateful for my time in the underground world of pick-up artists because it showed me that a guy who had given up all hope of ever being comfortable with himself and others could change.”
The film’s part of a four movie deal with producer Demian Gregory, and production will start in 2017, according to Deadline.
