James Franco on His New Sal Mineo Biopic
AFF coverage
By Marjorie Baumgarten, Fri., Oct. 28, 2011
Photo by Jana Birchum
Film star James Franco walked the red carpet at the Paramount Theatre as the director of Sal, a movie that depicts the last day in the life of Sal Mineo. Mineo, described by Franco as "an actor [I] really looked up to," was twice nominated for Oscars for his work in Rebel Without a Cause and Exodus before being murdered in a random attack in 1976. Franco described Austin as holding a "very special place in my heart," since he had once before appeared at the Austin Film Festival with an earlier film he directed, The Ape. Sal, he said, is his first "post-film-school movie."
