James Franco Won't Direct Russell Crowe in Film Adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's BLOOD MERIDIAN

Update: THR reports that this entire project has fallen apart because the filmmakers didn't have the rights to the novel. How they could have possibly thought they could have made the movie without those rights is unclear. Original article follows.

A film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian has been kicking around Hollywood for what seems like decades at this point, and a somewhat unlikely man is bringing it to life: James Franco. Deadline reports that the prolific filmmaker — if you haven't been paying attention, you probably didn't know he's directed seven movies in the past three years and has a staggering eight more currently in post-production — will direct and star in the new movie, and Russell Crowe is in talks to co-star. X-Men: Apocalypse star Tye Sheridan and Daredevil baddie Vincent D'Onofrio are on board as well.

Here's the synopsis of the book:

An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving.

Franco has already directed on McCarthy adaptation (Child of God), so it'll be interesting to see how he brings this much-higher-profile story to life on the big screen. No word yet on when filming will begin for this one, so it could still be a while before we see it. Have you read the book? What do you think about this casting?