James Franco x 7 For All Mankind: 'Flowers For the Risen'

James Franco is back doing what he does best (everything), taking the reigns as director, editor and photographic director of 7 for all Mankind's FW12 campaign. Last time Mr Franco got together with the brand we saw Lily Donaldson skimpily clad at a California beach party. Lily is back this time, except instead of playing Cali beach babe, she's some sort of veiled cult member alongside Lou Doillon and someone carrying a boom-box.

Episode One in the 'James Franco's Hollywood Resurrection' series is titled Flowers For The Risen. It follows the good-looking cult members as they make the pilgrimage through The Hollywood Forever Cemetery to a church, perform a bunch of exorcism-type rituals, and then meet with their leader — played by Henry Hopper (son of Dennis) — and carry him away gleefully. It all sounds a bit creepy, but clever James has managed to make it mysterious and glamourous and frankly, damn cool.

The theme for the campaign is old Hollywood, and how we idolise and glorify fallen stars. "The big thing I am trying to access is memory and how we deal with memory, what that means, how we remember people and who creates the lasting images of people. We all have our connections to people who we admire and it's my own way of examining my own connections," Franco said. The fallen star he had in mind was Italian actor Rudolph Valentino, who died at the age of 31.

Then there's this behind-the-scenes footage — basically two and a half minutes of James and co. being truly magical. Lucky us! (Watch for him growling at 1:45.) 

Leesa Gallaher