Marvel’s Multiple Man Is Getting A Movie, James Franco To Play The Self-Replicating X-Man
James Francomade himself known to a generation of movie fans as Harry Osborn in Sam Raimi’s originalSpider-Mantrilogy. Now, he’s returning to the Marvel comic book movie fold. A movie based on theX-MencharacterMultiple Manis in the works at 20th Century Fox and the Oscar-nominated actor is on board to star.Deadlinereports that theMultiple Manmovie is being developed, withWonder WomanscreenwriterAllan Heinbergand longtime X-Men producer/writerSimon Kinberg(who will make his directorial debut withX-Men: Dark Phoenix) producing alongside Franco. Interestingly, the movie came together as Franco and Kinberg developed another project together,The Hardy Men, about the grown-up adventures of the classic literary sleuths, The Hardy Boys.
In the Marvel comics, Multiple Man is codename of Jamie Madrox, a mutant with a double-edged superpower. Whenever he makes physical contact with anything, he creates a copy of himself. And then that clone can create a copy of itself. And the next clone can create a copy of itself. And so on. Naturally, this comes in handy in a fight, but it’s a real pain in the butt if you want to live an ordinary life. In the comics, Professor Charles Xavier of the X-Men builds Jamie a special suit that allows him to better control his chaotic powers.
Multiple Man isn’t the most well-known superhero out there, but he sure is an interesting one. The fact that his clones have minds of his own and often reflect certain portions of his personality recall another oddball X-Men character who recently made it to the big screen: David Haller, the mentally ill psychic mutant at the heart of FX’s incredibleLegion. In fact, Multiple Man could very easily be a sibling to that gonzo series, especially since it will give Franco a chance to literally act alongside himself. Perhaps even dozens of versions of himself.
While this seems like an odd character to build a movie around, Multiple Man is perfectly in line with the other recent X-Men projects.Deadpoolwas a raunchy, self-aware comedy.Loganwas a brutal western for adult audiences. The upcomingNew Mutantsis essentially a horror movie. After years of bland X-Men movies, Fox seems to realize that they can stand out from Marvel Studios and DC by letting their freak flag fly…and there’s nothing freakier than a superhero movie starring James Franco and James Franco and James Franco and James Franco…
It’s still early days yet forMultiple Man, so we’ll keep you posted as we learn more.
