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Zeroville: James Franco’s ‘unbearably smug’ new movie bombs at box office after critical panning

One critic asked ‘is this the worst film of 2019?’

Ellie Harrison
Tuesday 01 October 2019 10:21 BST
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Zeroville: Trailer

James Franco’s new film Zeroville is one of the star's least successful releases to date, having brought in just $8,900 across 80 screens on its opening weekend, as well as being panned by critics.

The actor-writer-director’s adaptation of Steve Erickson’s 2007 book on 70s Hollywood stars Megan Fox, Seth Rogen and Will Ferrell.

It was originally made in 2014, but its release was delayed after its distributor Alchemy filed for bankruptcy in 2015.

Zeroville has not gone down well with critics, scoring just 27 per cent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.

Little White Lies branded the film “unbearably smug” and The Los Angeles Times deemed it a “tedious muddle”, saying it was “worth zero stars”.

The Guardian, meanwhile, asked “is this the worst film of 2019?” and called it a work of “staggering incompetence”.

Following the critical acclaim Franco received for The Disaster Artist in 2017, Zeroville is the latest in a series of box office bombs for Franco, including horror movie The Vault and sci-fi thriller Kin.

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