Mark Ruffalo ended his 2008 on a very sad note, so we're happy to report that the new year finds his directorial debut coming back together. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ruffalo's "Sympathy for Delicious" has attracted two new cast members in Orlando Bloom and Laura Linney. Bloom is replacing James Franco, who had to step out after the film was delayed due to Ruffalo's personal tragedy.

Written by Christopher Thornton, the story follows a paralyzed DJ who is struggling to survive on the streets of L.A. who turns to faith healing and mysteriously develops the ability to heal the sick. He can't heal his own paralysis, however, and it might have something to do with how readily he cashes in his gift to achieve his dreams of rock stardom. Read more...

Academy Award-nominated actress Juliette Lewis is joining Mark Ruffalo’s “Sympathy For Delicious,” which is finally going to start lensing in December, the celebrated “What Doesn’t Kill You” actor told MTV News.

Ruffalo’s announcement comes four months after James Franco also broke the news to MTV of his involvement in the project but some four years after Ruffalo first began talking about the movie, an upside down hagiography at least somewhat based on one of Ruffalo’s close friends, paraplegic Chris Thornton.

“It’s a kind of social satire about a guy in a wheelchair who gets the gift to heal but he can’t heal himself so he takes it to start heal-a-palooza and prostitutes it for sex, drugs, rock and roll, and fame,” Ruffalo laughed of the movie’s plot, which in combination with my chat with Franco, proves it’s not a story that can be summed up in 30 seconds or less. Read more...

Reports about the end of James Franco's acting career have been greatly exaggerated, the 30-year-old told MTV News, smiling broadly, insisting, contrary to earlier statements, that just because he was going back to school, it didn't mean he was going to stop making movies.

His next post-"Pineapple Express" project, in fact, has him singing with excitement. Literally.

"Mark Ruffalo is gonna direct his first movie and he wants me to play a singer in a rock band," Franco revealed. "It's called 'Sympathy for Delicious.'" Read more...