Bestiality, Fine. Gays? No Thanks: James Franco Slams Australia Over Movie Ban

Bestiality, Fine. Gays? No Thanks: James Franco Slams Australia Over Movie Ban

James Franco has slammed Australia's film board for banning Travis Mathew's gay-themed film 'I Want Your Love.' The movie star dubbed the organization "hypocritical" for shunning the movie, the story of a gay man who has sex with his best friend during his last night in Los Angeles. Franco has previously collaborated with filmmaker Mathews on Interior.Leather.Bar, a reimagining of 40 minutes of scenes deleted from William Friedkin's 1980 film Cruising.

The Australian government-sponsored film board has banned the screening of I Want Your Love at two gay-themed festivals in the country, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the Brisbane Queer Film Festival, citing the sex scenes between the men as indecent. 

In a statement that accompanied a petition to the classification board, director Mathews said he uses "as a tool to show character development, interpersonal issues, intimacy, playfulness and something overall closer to the reality I'm familiar with." The controversy surrounding the ban is fuelled by the fact that a year ago, the board allowed a film about bestiality - Donkey Love - to screen at festivals.

In a YouTube statement, Franco called the decision "embarrassing," saying, "I don't know why in this day and age something like this, a film that's using sex not for titillation but to talk about being human, is being banned. I hope you'll reconsider."

Franco is currently starring alongside Mila Kunis and Rachel Weisz in Sam Raimi's family movie Oz: Great And Powerful. He is currently shooting Paul Haggis' romantic-drama The Third Person, with Kunis and Liam Neeson.