James Franco's New Project: Directing Faulkner

James Franco can get multiple master’s degrees while publishing short stories, putting on art shows, and of course, preparing to host the Oscars … so directing a William Faulkner classic should be no sweat, right? Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is just one of Franco’s upcoming directorial efforts, Showbiz411 reports. The other is similarly simple-sounding: Blood Meridian—by Cormac McCarthy, author of such light fare as The Road and No Country for Old Men.

Making this all sound even more like a piece of cake: He wrote the screenplay for As I Lay Dying and hopes to do the same for Blood Meridian. But neither will be his first directing effort—click to read about Franco’s directorial debut, and for more on the renaissance man. (More James Franco stories.)