The notorious 2007 murder of porn film producer Bryan Kocis (AKA Bryan Phillips), the latest film to feature the prolific James Franco, has finished shooting, according to Deadline.
Titled King Cobra, the film is based on the so-called Cobra Video killing, in which Kocis, who ran a studio making gay adult films, was murdered at his home in Pennsylvania. Two former male escorts and wannabe producers, Harlow Cuadra and Joseph Kerekes, were convicted and given life sentences, and a book based on the case – Cobra Killer: Gay porn, murder and the manhunt to bring the killers to justice, by Andrew E Stoner and Peter A Conway – was published in 2012.
King Cobra is written and directed by Justin Kelly, with whom Franco previously worked on gay-conversion drama I Am Michael. According to Deadline, Franco plays “a former male escort with a bad temper and a burning desire to become a porn kingpin”, while Christian Slater takes the role of “a porno producer who discovers the next big star”. Their character names are listed on IMDb as Joe and Stephen, which suggests the film is not intended as a scrupulous re-enactment, but it would appear that Slater’s role is the murder victim.
One character who does appear to be directly drawn from reality is Sean Paul Lockhart, AKA Brent Corrigan (played by Disney Channel star Garrett Clayton), then a successful porn star who has since moved into more conventional film-making, including a small role in the Gus Van Sant-directed Milk. Lockhart turned down an offer to work on King Cobra as a consultant, saying he didn’t want to be a part of “someone else’s presentation of events that I personally lived as a young adult”.
