Mark Ruffalo to Direct Sympathy for Delicious

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By Gillian Reagan

August 5, 2008 | 10:57 a.m.

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Mark Ruffalo is getting in the director's chair for his new project: Sympathy for Delicious. It's a movie starring Mr. Ruffalo's friend Chris Long as an L.A. DJ "Delicious" Dean O'Dwyer who is paralyzed in a wheelchair (Mr. Long is actually paralyzed in a wheelchair in real life).

Delicious develops some kind of divine gift to cure the sick, according to Variety. Mr. Ruffalo will be making his directorial debut and starring in the movie as a priest who helps out Delicious; James Franco (yum) will play a trickster singer in a rock band who tries to "exploit" Delicious's gift.

James Franco gave an interview to MTV about the movie last week:

The project, a “drama that’s got comedy in it,” as Franco described it, has been kicking around since at least 2004, when Ruffalo mentioned the film while doing press for “13 Going on 30.”

Based on Franco’s comments, it would seem the film might finally be a go. But just who the heck is Delicious, anyway, and why should we have sympathy for him?

“DJ Delicious. He’s a DJ,” Franco clarified. “This DJ character was written for [Mark's] friend who’s actually paraplegic in real life, Chris Thornton, and he’s this DJ that has kind of a gift. He joins up with my band and then starts getting more attention than me, the lead singer. So I start getting upset about that.”