James Franco pic bows at Rotterdam

BRUSSELS -- James Franco's latest extracurricular film-making project will take its world bow at the Rotterdam Film Festival, which opens on Jan. 25. "Francophrenia (or: Don't Kill Me, I Know Where the Baby Is)" is described as a humorous psycho-thriller made up of footage shot by Franco during the making of television series "General Hospital." Material has been reshaped with a new script by Franco and co-director Ian Olds. Best known as an actor, Franco has produced a steady stream of experimental films in recent years, reworking footage of River Phoenix in "My Own Private River" and probing the life of Sal Mineo in "Sal." The film appears in Rotterdam's Spectrum section, which includes 72 features and documentaries by established filmmakers, including 16 world premieres. Also preeming in the section is "A Shape of Error" by U.S. experimental filmmaker Abigail Child. Pic explores romanticism of the 19th century through imaginary home movies supposedly filmed in Rome by poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and author Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Rotterdam will also see the world bows of Miike Takashi's "Ace Attorney," a film adaptation of Nintendo's eponymous courtroom vid game, and "When the Lights Went Out" by Brit helmer Pat Holden ("Awaydays"). Pic concerns a Yorkshire family tormented by an evil spirit during power blackouts of the 1970s. They are joined by Davide Manuli's "The Legend of Kaspar Hauser," a post-modern Western from Italy starring Vincent Gallo, and "Le reste du monde" by Gallic helmer Damien Odoul, starring Marie-Eve Nadeau, Mathieu Amalric and Emmanuelle Beart. Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com