James Franco is remaking Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? as a 'very non-Lifetime movie'

last updated 12 January 2016

It's the made-for-TV movie remake you never knew you wanted until now — courtesy of James Franco.

Franco is serving as executive producer on a remake of the Tori Spelling movie Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?, and he told Us Weekly over the weekend that it's all happening because of Will Ferrell. "Will Ferrell had done A Deadly Adoption, and Will told me he was actually inspired by my going on General Hospital when he did that, and then Lifetime came to me and [asked] would I like to recreate their movie like Will did," he said. "And I said yes, as long as I could change it a bit."

In the original Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?, Spelling starred as a teenager who thought her boyfriend, played by Ivan Sergei, was the perfect guy. Because this was a 1996 Tori Spelling movie, he was anything but, and the movie ultimately became a cult classic. Franco told Us Weekly that Spelling, 42, will have a role in his "completely revamped" version — this time, playing the mom. While the essence of the original will still be there, Franco insists that his Mother, May I Sleep with Danger? will be a "very non-Lifetime movie."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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