Franco Gay Film Competes at Sundance

James Franco's take on gay Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg in Howl will premiere at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, reports Variety. Directed and written by out filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, Howl costars Jon Hamm, Mary-Louise Parker, and Aaron Tveit (pictured right with Franco) as Ginsberg's lover Peter Orlovsky, and will focus specifically on Ginsberg's obscenity trial for writing the landmark poem that gives the film its title. Other gay-themed films in competition include The Runaways, about the formation of the eponymous '70s all-girl band by out rocker Joan Jett, played by Kristen Stewart. Documentaries of interest include Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, about the late graffiti artist and 8: The Mormon Proposition, which investigates the role played by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in promoting and passing California's Proposition 8 against gay marriage. The festival will run January 21-31 in Park City, Utah.