Franco to Star in Hulu’s Sci-Fi JFK Series

Time travel to ‘the grassy knoll’?

If “comedy is tragedy plus time,” what is science fiction? Online audiences are about to find out, with help from actor James Franco. “The Interview” star has agreed to lead Hulu’s upcoming “11/22/63,” centered around the assassination of JFK. Franco will also produce the series.

But, just as James Cameron didn’t think audiences could appreciate the epic tragedy of “Titanic” without a love triangle and gun-play, Hulu goes back to the time-travel well to make the JFK assassination more interesting. Franco plays a high school English teacher who travels back in time to try to stop the assassination. Complications ensue.

Of course, “11/22/63” is not the first time the Kennedy assassination got the fantasy comic book treatment. Oliver Stone’s JFK went pretty far into paranoid lefty conspiracy land. Considering the series is based on a Steven King book, viewers probably shouldn’t expect much different.