Spring Break forever...until you stick a Q-tip in your ear. (THR)

We'd actually go see this film. Wouldn't you?

You have to admit a resemblance. (Getty/Division Films)

Last week, The Observer reported on a potential feud brewing between Nascar Grand Marshal James Franco and RiFF RaFF, a Texas-based rapper who had claimed that the role of Alien in Spring Breakers was originally offered to him, though he was later offered a smaller role as part of the character's posse. Franco not only disagreed, but claimed to not have even used RiFF RaFF as a major inspiration for the part, despite striking similarities in grooming and wardrobe.

Today the artist currently under Diplo's label and working on an album called NEON iCon responded to our requests to clarify the situation.

"Harmony Korine emailed me, i was gunna play alongside James Franco," RiFF RaFF wrote to The Observer from Amsterdam, where he's been for four days. "He said the Movie has my Energy."

The rapper, who appeared on the cover of Sneeze magazine with Mr. Korine in October, isn't able to recall if they discussed the movie, saying "we are friends we talk about random shit ... it's not always about Spring breakers." However, even that
Sneeze profile highlighted the tug-of-war over Alien's ownership:

Harmony’s cornrow-beaded drug dealer character, “Alien,” resembles RiFF RAFF. With “RiFFmony” being spotted trying to dunk on West Hollywood’s public courts, James-Franco-to-play-RiFF-RAFF headlines ensued. Not true. Alien, says Franco for the hundredth time, was inspired by a “panache” of southern rappers prior to RiFF entering Harmony’s world. If anything, RiFF was slated to be part of Alien’s “posse” but that didn’t pan out. What’s to follow doesn’t clarify much about the Spring Breakers mystery (Gucci Mane is in it, too). It does, however, identify RiFF’s flavor of Bill Cosby Pudding Pops and confirm Harmony’s basketball skills.

RiFF RaFF did admit that he was never approached by James Franco, nor has he ever been in contact with the actor. Still:

Ask FRANCO who his image was based on ? He always deflects the question and says "the character isn't based on RiFF RaFF..." Ask him who his image was taken from
Point out another famous white artist/rapper with braids, beads, loud bright color clothes, Texas Accent, gold jewelry, Name another person ever in the world who EVER did it like me ???? I Rest My Case ... It's a No brainer Here Folks

Well, Franco did claim that the role of Alien was based mostly on Dangeruss, who did have a cameo in the film and with whom Franco had collaborated with for a separate project while prepping for the role. (RiFF RaFF maintains he wasn't able to be in the film because he wasn't able to work within the tight shooting schedule.) However, it's true that the sartorial choices are way more RiFF RaFF than Dangeruss, who prefers less flashy clothes. And look, all the way back in March, RiFF RaFF was still feeling good about the whole situation, telling Fuse.TV:

"Even though I couldn't be a part of this project, I'm still glad that James Franco could play the role of me,” he said. “That's like if Denzel Washington was playing the role of O.J. Simpson. Even though it's not O.J. Simpson, O.J. Simpson still gotta be like, 'Denzel Washington is playing me.'"

There does seem to be some wires crossed here, with Franco thinking that he was making up the role based on whomever he felt fit the character, and Mr. Korine's friendship with RiFF RaFF obviously inspiring at least the wardrobe choice.

Of the film, which RiFF RaFF has seen, he has only positive things to say: "Yea i saw it its a good movie," he told The Observer. "Can't wait for the movie to come out #RapGameJamesFranco #SpringBreakers."

Clockwise from top: Franco, Dangeruss and Riff Raff

Since the beginning, rapper Riff Raff has been promoting the film, saying the Franco character was based on him. And the similarities are evident: the gold grill, the dreadlocks, the fact that one of his albums was called The Golden Alien and he and Korine appeared on a Sneeze magazine's cover together.

All was kosher. That is, until James Franco got upset over the idea that his performance could have been done by the From Gs to Gents contestant himself.

It all started with a baiting question from GQ's Matthew Sebra:

GQ Eye: With regards to your character in the movie, the rapper Riff Raff has said the role you are playing was originally meant for him. Is that true?
James Franco: None of that's true. I'll tell you why he could have never been offered the role. Harmony (Korine, the movie's writer and director) and I were talking about doing a movie together before Spring Breakers was even conceived. I had been a fan of his work and he wanted to do something and I said, "I'll do anything with you." We started discussing ideas and one day he sent me a treatment, which he said he's never done before, just to run it by me. And it was this idea of these girls going on spring break and then they meet up with this guy who leads them into the dark side. And then he wrote the script. So there's no chance Riff Raff could have been offered the role. Of course Harmony and I looked at some of Riff Raff's videos as inspiration, but he was one of a number of people we looked at. I would say the biggest influence on the role was this local Florida rapper named Dangerous. (editor's note: actually, Dangeruss). He's fairly unknown, but he was down there in the place, living the life, and he became the biggest model for me and he's in the movie.

He also told MTV a similar story, noting how Dangerous is actually rapping on stage with him during a scene in the film.
Let's compare and contrast, shall we?
Riff Raff:

Dangeruss:

Franco in Spring Breakers:

Hmm...it really is too close to call!

Complex seized on the story and interviewed the "I knew him before he was cool" Dangeruss about inspiring Franco, leading Riff Raff to wig out over email to the publication (and MTV), calling Franco a LIAR:

To put salt in the wound, Dangeruss gave an interview to the Tampa Bay Times today in which he talked about Franco's "real" friendship:

He actually flew me out to L.A. after we did the movie just on the personal strength that he felt like he liked me, and that I had a talent for music. And that was a separate project from the movie! So I love James. I just talked to him the other day. He says he got other stuff in store for me, so we'll see what happens, where that goes.

Well, good luck with that, Dangeruss. Let us know when that collaborative project comes out. Hope your name is still on the finished project, and what it was like to work with Marina Abramović and/or bondage slaves.

Update: It does look like Franco used Dangeruss for a second of footage in a weird music video he made back in July for the short film he did for 7 For All Mankind jeans:

Get ready to feel dirty!

Harmony Korine is either a brilliant genius or insane or both. Not that these are new opinions about the director of Trash Humpers, but still ... teaming up with James Franco to make a movie about four teenagers who lose their innocence and become dirty little freaks over the course of one Spring Break is dark enough. Having the teenagers played by formerly squeaky-clean tween stars like Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Selena Gomez (well, she's less clean now) and Korine's own daughter wife(!!!), Rachel Korine? That's bordering on distasteful.

The trailer for Spring Breakers has just hit the net, giving us first glimpse into this sordid tale, which looks like it will give Tony Kushner's Lincoln script a run for its money.


You know you're going to see Spring Breakers, so let's not play games here. This has too many awesome/potentially horrific ingredients that there's no way you wouldn't buy tickets to the train wreck. Also: why should we wait till tween stars explode under the pressure of fame and spiral out into Lindsay Lohan territory, when we could just pay them to act that way in a movie?

Maybe if they just stick to saying the phrase "Spring Break" a bunch, we can cover our eyes when the inevitable AIDS-rape occurs.

Christopher Barnes (far right) reports from Venice. (Getty)

It has been 18 years since I was last associated with a Hollywood movie—I had a very minor credit on Pumpkinhead II, starring the amazingly talented presidential brother Roger Clinton as “The Mayor”—and this week, at the Venice Film Festival, felt like a walk back in time. In addition to covering the festival for The Observer, I was there to see off my small investment in an independent movie called Kiss of the Damned, which was closing the festival.

Venice is like a smaller Cannes: lots of premieres, stars and glamour, but without the large scale-madness of its French counterpart. Medium-sized commercial movies play alongside smaller, niche pictures. Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, Robert Redford’s The Company you Keep and Brian De Palma’s The Passion all premiered, as did a retrospective of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate.

My only criticism of the Venice Film Festival is that it's hard to motivate oneself to go to these movies during the day, when you have a combination of perfect weather, one of the world’s most beautiful cities and whatever residual bleariness from covering all those late-night parties. I admit that I missed Mr. Redford’s The Company You Keep. The word around the camp was that this was something of a stinker—anyone remember Sneakers? Mr. Redford is the near antithesis of Michael Cimino, both cinematically and physically: while Mr. Redford is the epitome of growing old gracefully, Mr. Cimino appears to have had more plastic surgery than Joan Rivers, resembling a Jake and Dinos Chapman artwork. Gawker recently compared him to The Strange Case of Benjamin Button. Mr. Cimino has had a strange career. His 1978 film The Deer Hunter was revered as one of the great movies of its time, and his name was mentioned alongside the great auteurs. But then came Heaven’s Gate, arguably the biggest flop in cinema history (yet, in my opinion, a great American movie)—which took down United Artists. It's a sad state for a character as colorful as Mr. Cimino (who was rumored to have contemplated changing his name to Michelle Cimino).

Another old master, Mr. De Palma, whose The Passion seems to pay homage to his own Dressed to Kill with a little lesbianism thrown into the mix, didn't fare much better. The movie, which stars Rachel McAdams as a mean-spirited ad exec and Noomi Rapace as her talented but stepped-on subordinate—feels like an ’80s slasher movie that is trying too hard to be an ’80s slasher movie. As I was walking out of the theater I overheard someone exclaiming, “How could someone who was capable of Scarface and Carlito’s Way create this dross?”

And then there was Kiss of the Damned. I got involved with Kiss through a friend who is an executive producer on the film (and a partner in Vegas Seven, an Observer Media Group property). Prior to the official screening, I had dinner with cast and the crew. Xan Cassavetes, the 46 year-old daughter of John Cassavetes and Gina Rowland, was showing her first film at the festival, and it was easy to imagine the stress undoubtedly coming from the weight of such a big legacy. But she said she was both excited and confident of a good reception—and was more worried about her 15 year-old daughter who had hurt her leg the day before. A keen subject of conversation was the first review, which came out of the Hollywood Reporter. It was long and thoughtful but somewhat mean-spirited, calling the film “The Valveeta Vampire." It was also harsh toward the two lead actresses, Roxane Mesquida and Josephine de la Baume, even misreporting that Josephine had been on Gossip Girl, when it was in fact Roxane who had guest-starred on the show. The endeavor was a high-profile project for both ladies, and you could sense the hurt from the pair as they sat just opposite me at dinner. The only thing I could think of saying to comfort them was that nobody reads the Hollywood Reporter anymore—and that the Variety review would surely be better.

The next day, I walked the red carpet with the lot. It took a little negotiating from my executive producer friend to have me included in the entourage, and I strutted down the red carpet alongside the glamorous actresses, awkwardly smirking as the paparazzi flashbubs popped.

The movie is a homage to vampire films of the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. It reminded me of Tony Scott’s The Hunger, starring Catherine Deneuve and David Bowie, in terms of its visuals and pacing—and the Frenchness of the cast. It is the art-house answer to Twilight. A woman-dominated film, the French actresses give enthusiastic performances, dominating the male lead, Milo Ventimiglia, a handsome man who mercifully was given little to say.

The after-party was festive and made more so by a deservedly strong review from Variety: it described the film as "a sly tongue-in-cheek tribute to old school horror films." I was right!

The Kiss team was in a good mood. I asked producer Jen Gatien (she also recently produced a film about her father, nightclub impresario Peter Gatien, as well as one about the Chelsea Hotel) if she was relieved it was over—she said she was more relieved that they had sold the movie's U.S. and international distribution rights and was going to take a couple days of r&r in Rome. Roxane, who played the bad-girl vampire with a penchant for threesomes, asked if I thought of her differently after seeing the film, to which I clumsily mumbled back, um, well yes, maybe.

Their conversations turned to the upcoming festivals and projects—such is the life of a movie producer. Did I mention I have a credit on Pumpkinhead II?

editorial@observer.com

“Poetry in motion” is how Franco’s drug-dealing rapper Alien describes the crowd at a beach beer blast. “Bikinis and big booties, y’all. That’s what life is about.”