James Franco purchased the rights to Stephen Elliot’s true-crime memoir The Adderall Diaries when he was still in the MFA program at NYU. The film, which was directed by Pamela Romanowsky and co-stars Amber Heard, finds Franco playing Elliot as he investigates the 2007 trial that found Hans Reiser (played by Christian Slater) guilty of killing his wife. Of course, given Franco’s involvement, you can rest assured this is no straightforward whodunnit: Elliot’s book also delves deep into his own psyche as he attempts to come to terms with addiction and his own set of father issues.
The film, which premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival, is gearing up for an April release here and in the UK, where it’s being called True Deception. The British trailer, which you can see below, leans more heavily on the relationship between Elliot and his father (Ed Harris) than it does the crime, but you’ll have to wait until April 15 to see how the film itself handles its disparate plots.
The Adderall Diaries is out April 15 in limited release in the US.
